Trump leaves quarantine to pay 'surprise visit’ to supporters outside of hospital

BETHESDA, Md. – President Trump recorded a cryptic tweet saying he was going to pay a surprise visit to some of the “great patriots” that have been outside of Walter Reed, leaving some people to speculate that maybe he was leaving the hospital for good.

The White House soon announced on Twitter that the president had decided to take a short, last-minute motorcade ride.

Speculation ran rampant as Trump spoke in the past tense in the Tweet around 5:30 p.m. Sunday: “It has been a very interesting journey. I have learned a lot about COVID.”

He started out his Tweet inside Ward 71 at the hospital by saying: “We are getting great reports from the doctors. I want to thank them all."

Then mentioned his “surprise visit.”

"I think we’re going to pay a little surprise to some of the great patriots that we have out on the street and they’ve been out there for a long time. I’m about to make a little surprise visit,” Trump said in his Tweet.

The White House said the president is now back inside the Presidential Suite.

“President Trump took a short, last-minute motorcade ride to wave to his supporters outside and has now returned to the Presidential Suite inside Walter Reed," said Judd Deere, a spokesperson for the White House.

Deere later said that the medical team gave clearance for the ride and that “appropriate precautions were taken to protect the president and all those supporting it, including PPE.”

Trump’s doctors said Sunday he could be going back to the White House as early as Monday and that he could continue his treatment for coronavirus there. There has be no confirmation he will be leaving Monday.

“I learned a lot about COVID. I learned it by really going to school. This is the real school. This isn’t the let’s-read-the-book school,” Trump said in his Twitter video message.

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