Donald Trump Says He’s ‘Feeling Great’ Upon Return to White House After Hospitalization

President Donald Trump spent most of Tuesday morning on Twitter, claiming that he is “feeling great” as he continues to recover from COVID-19. The president is less than a week out from the start of his coronavirus symptoms and his positive test, yet he insisted on returning to the White House on Monday evening against medical protocol. Once there, he spent Tuesday morning tweeting.

Trump was up early on Tuesday, posting election commentary beginning just after 7:30 a.m. ET. He made dubious claims about his opponent in the 2020 presidential election, former Vice President Joe Biden, apparently paraphrasing his understanding of Biden’s policy positions based on Monday night’s town hall on NBC News. Trump then falsely claimed that the seasonal flu is more “lethal” than COVID-19, and Twitter flagged this tweet for “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.” A few hours later, Trump wrote simply: “FEELING GREAT!”

As the hours wore on, Trump remained active on Twitter, commenting on Biden’s town hall from the previous night as if he were watching the whole thing. Many critics speculated that Trump spent the day watching cable news, after insisting that he be discharged from the hospital and returned to the White House so he could get “back to work.”

Trump posted clips from Fox News coverage of the election of his illness, thanking the network for its favorable portrayal of him. He later complained: “The Fake News Media refuses to discuss how good the Economy and Stock Market, including JOBS under the Trump Administration, are doing.”

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a much more dire view of the economy and the job market, according to a report by CNN. Trump’s first term in office saw the most job losses of any president since 1939, in a trend set even before the coronavirus pandemic. While the unemployment rate has fallen recently, experts do not expect even this partial recovery to last long without more decisive action on public health, and more stimulus packages.

Trump has continued to spread falsehoods about the virus, however, even as he himself suffers from it. The president is encouraging his followers to ignore the public health guidelines established by his CDC and other medical professionals. In the process, he has insulted hundreds of thousands of Americans who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 in the last six months.