Trump says he's taking 'pretty much nothing' 1 week after hospitalization

Donald Trump. — (Image credit: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Image)

President Trump gave his first televised interview Friday night since his COVID-19 diagnosis and subsequent hospitalization and discharge, telling Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel at one point that he had been "medication free" for eight hours. Later in the interview, however, Siegel asked Trump what medications he was on, to which the president replied "pretty much nothing." That response was more vague than his previous declaration, but Siegel didn't ask for clarification.

Trump said he "didn't feel very vital" or "like the president of the U.S. should feel" before he was flown to Walter Reed hospital last week and revealed he had congestion in his lungs, but said he "didn't have a problem with breathing." As The New York Times notes, Trump's blood oxygen levels dropped to a point where doctors believed it was necessary to give him supplemental oxygen, although there have been reports of COVID-19 patients with startlingly low blood oxygen levels who haven't had breathing troubles.

The president praised the hospital's medical staff who treated him, as well as the medications he received for helping him recover quickly. He also said he's been re-tested for the virus, and while he doesn't know the results, he said he was "either at the bottom of the scale or free." Read more at Fox News and The New York Times.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.