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Walter Reed Physician Breaks Down the 'Insanity' of Trump's Joy Ride With Secret Service

Walter Reed Physician Breaks Down the 'Insanity' of Trump's Joy Ride With Secret Service
ABC News // ABC News

This past Friday, President Donald Trump was flown to Walter Reed Medical Center for treatment after he announced on Thursday that he and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for the virus that's killed over 200 thousand Americans.

As White House health officials confirmed that the President was on a cocktail of multiple drugs and had received supplemental oxygen, the President scrambled to paint himself as the picture of good health.


He posted photos of himself signing apparently blank sheets of paper while releasing Twitter videos assuring the public of his good spirits.

Most shockingly, as the President's supporters gathered outside Walter Reed with Trump flags and other memorabilia, the President and at least two Secret Service agents rode out in the hermetically sealed presidential SUV to greet them.

Trump's willingness to put those agents' lives unnecessarily at risk by potentially spreading the virus to them in the compact space sparked outcry, including from a physician at the same medical center Trump is currently occupying.

Dr. James Phillips, an attending physician at Walter Reed, called the move "insanity."


In a later interview with ABC News, Phillips elaborated on the risks Trump's photo-op posed for the Secret Service agents.

Watch below.

Phillips said:

"I have serious concerns that in any automobile, masks or no masks, there's a very high risk of transmission. And then add in to the mix that that's not any vehicle. That's a hermetically sealed vehicle that's designed to be impenetrable to chemical attacks, therefore the amount of circulation inside is even poorer than we would expect from a normal vehicle."

He continued:

"And as a physician, you look at the decisions we make has risks versus benefits, and I don't know what the benefits of this political stunt were, but I do know what the risks were, and my concern is perhaps the Secret Service agents that were inside don't know the full risk of what they were up against there and what the real threats were."

People sided with Phillips' expertise.



Phillips was far from the only one criticizing Trump for the stunt.






While the First Lady has the virus as well, she's elected to stay at the White House instead of at Walter Reed. The reason given by a member of her team was that "She has [the virus]. That would expose the agents who would drive her there and the medical staff who would walk her up to him."

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