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Donald Trump's personal physician Sean Conley (front right) with colleagues: The doctor repeatedly avoided questions
Photo: MICHAEL REYNOLDS / POOL / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
It was a crazy weekend for the Americans.
Your President Donald Trump has been infected with Corona and is being brought to a military hospital by helicopter - and yet the public is clearly only learning half-truths about the Commander-in-Chief's health.
The doctors say this, the chief of staff that - and in the end almost everyone has to correct themselves or at least clarify their statements.
And above all there is the question: How is the most powerful man in the world really doing?
The information chaos began on Saturday at the latest.
The US President spent his first night at the Walter Reed Military Hospital in Bethesda when his personal physician Sean Conley appeared before journalists there.
Conley is flanked by nine colleagues in white coats, his mission: to educate Americans about Trump's health.
The performance took less than 13 minutes.
After that, not only is the uncertainty, but also the distrust of the White House even greater than before.
THE ANONYMOUS SOURCE
Conley and his team of doctors painted a rosy picture of the condition of the 74-year-old in front of journalists on Saturday - but only a few minutes after the end of the briefing, an anonymous source gave the reporters completely different information: "The values of the President in the past 24 hours have been very high worrying, "it says.
The next 48 hours would be crucial.
"We are still not on a clear path to a full recovery."
It later emerges that the source was Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
CNN journalist Jim Acosta wrote on Twitter on Sunday, citing informed circles, that Trump was pissed off at Meadows because of his statements.
THE PHYSICIAN evades
Even without Meadows cross shot, Conley's appearance on Saturday raises numerous questions.
The doctor does not answer how high Trump's fever was.
No information on how Trump could have been infected.
The doctor repeatedly evades the question of whether Trump needed additional oxygen at some point in the course of his Covid 19 disease.
"He's not getting any oxygen right now," Conley replies more than once.
Why Conley squirms like this soon becomes clear: The New York Times reports that Trump had breathing problems on Friday and was given oxygen.
"MIGHT SYMPTOMS"?
Meadows admitted on Saturday night on Fox News: "We were really worried yesterday. He had a fever and the oxygen levels in his blood had fallen rapidly."
On Friday the chief of staff claimed in front of journalists that Trump only showed "mild symptoms" and that the president was "in a good mood" and very energetic.
On Sunday, Conley also admits that Trump's oxygen levels had fallen - not only on Friday, but also on Saturday.
ATTEMPT TO JUSTIFY
The personal physician tried to justify himself on Sunday: "I tried to reflect the optimistic attitude that the team, the president and his illness showed. I didn't want to give any information that could steer the illness in a different direction . And it came across as if we were trying to hide something that wasn't necessarily right. "
Not necessarily?
In any case, Conley says, "The fact is, he's doing very well."
His colleague Brian Garibaldi added, should Trump continue to do so well, "we hope that we can plan for a discharge to the White House tomorrow".
WHEN WAS TRUMPS TEST RESULTS?
Trump's personal physician leaves another key question unanswered: When the president was last tested negative.
Instead, Conley causes confusion when he said on Saturday that the corona diagnosis was "72 hours" ago.
That would be devastating for Trump's reputation: Then he would have known that he was highly contagious - and would still have met donors in Minnesota and New Jersey on Wednesday evening and Thursday afternoon to raise funds for his election campaign.
The president is already being criticized because the White House knew before its meeting on Thursday that one of its closest advisors was infected with the virus.
A little later, Conley penned a "clarification" circulated by the White House stating that he had expressed himself incorrectly.
In fact, Trump's positive test result was only available on Thursday evening.
TRUMP AND THE HOSPITALS
The "New York Times" journalist Maggie Haberman writes on Twitter with a view to Conley's appearance on Saturday that the doctor had put his credibility at risk.
"This is partly because he is complying with the wishes of a patient who does not want the information about yesterday to be disclosed," said Haberman's tweets, citing Trump's environment.
All his life, Trump had a phobia of disease and an extreme distrust of hospitals.
"He wouldn't have gone to a hospital if he was doing relatively well."
A PURE PRECAUTION?
CNN reports that advisors should have urged Trump to get into the helicopter that took him to the hospital on Friday evening.
The White House had spoken of a purely precautionary measure.
Trump - who has actually planned a lot of appearances in about a month before the election - said in a video message on Friday evening: "I think I'm doing very well."
On Saturday evening he seems to contradict himself in retrospect when he says in a video from the hospital: "I came here, didn't feel so well."
But now he is "much better".
THE BORIS JOHNSON CASE
With regard to his infection, Trump also says that "the real test" will not be before him until the next few days.
This is reminiscent of his friend Boris Johnson's Covid 19 illness.
The British Prime Minister also initially mentioned "mild symptoms".
The government also called Johnson's hospital transfer a "precautionary measure".
Nine days after his positive test, Johnson was then in the intensive care unit.
A SUSPECTIVE DOCTOR'S LETTER
Even before his illness, Trump's credibility (not only) in medical matters was in poor shape.
His campaign team presented a letter in 2015 from a doctor named Harold Bornstein, which said, "I can clearly say that if Mr. Trump is elected, he will be the healthiest person ever elected to president."
It is not for nothing that the style was reminiscent of the president of superlatives.
Bornstein told CNN almost two and a half years ago: "He dictated the whole letter. I did not write this letter."
CAN YOU TRUST THE WHITE HOUSE?
The Washington Post believes that this White House cannot be trusted to provide truthful information about Trump's health.
The news site Axios even writes of a "cover-up" in a newsletter and asks why contradictions are presented to the public.
Even employees of the White House and Trump's campaign team have been at a loss since Meadow's statements about what is actually going on.
"Like us, they have little confidence in what they are told."
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