Trump says ‘real test’ ahead

REUTERS, 04TH OCTOBER, 2020-President Donald Trump tweeted thanks to his supporters on Sunday from the hospital where he is being treated for COVID-19, after a series of contradictory messages from the White House caused widespread confusion about his health.

Trump, who was taken to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday, he released a four-minute video on Saturday in which he said the “real test” of his condition will come over the next few days.

“Over the next period of a few days, I guess that’s the real test, so we’ll be seeing what happens over those next couple of days,” Trump said into the camera, looking tired and wearing a jacket and open-necked shirt. Trump’s illness has upended the campaign ahead of the November presidential election and cast a spotlight on the president’s handling of the pandemic. The Republican president is trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden in opinion polls.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Sunday found that Biden had opened a 10 point lead over Trump nationally, slightly wider than it has been for the past two months. Some 65% of Americans said Trump likely would not have been infected had he taken the virus more seriously -- a view that half of registered Republicans polled supported. Some 55% said they did not believe Trump had been telling the truth about the virus.