America gripped by Trump’s covid drama as president helicoptered to hospital

If there was one scene that summed up the drama of an extraordinary day it was this: Donald Trump walking across the South Lawn of the White House to be flown away in the Marine One helicopter.

It was not simply where Trump was heading - to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Bethesda - that made the moment so significant, but what he was wearing.

To this navy suit and and blue tie, the president had added a black facemark. Simple enough by itself, and now used routinely by millions of Americans, but this was one of just a handful of occasions he had donned one.  And never at the White House.

The 74-year-old looked steady enough as he made his way across the grass, a 30-second or so walk, and then six steps into the cabin of the chopper. With his right hand he tapped the handrail three times, as he stepped inside.

Almost simultaneously as the president walked to Marine One, the White House released a video message by him, thanking people.

“I’m going to Walter Reed hospital. I think I’m doing very well, but we’re going to make sure things work out,” he said. “The First Lady is doing very well. So thank you very much, I appreciate it. I will never forget it.”

Nevertheless, for all his insistence that he was “doing well”, the reality was that the president, one of the most image-conscious men ever to have occupied that office, was being flown to hospital because he had the coronavirus. The First Lady, who also tested positive, was not.

And someone who had repeatedly questioned the need to wear face masks to protect again the spread of the disease, even this week mocking Joe Biden for his insistence of using masks, was finally obliged to wear one.

Having said earlier in the day that Trump was lively and engaged, the White House doctor later revealed he was feeling tired and being given a range of recommended treatments, none of the kind of things the president himself had been pitching to the nation.

And even as Trump made his way to Walter Reed, a short distance away in the Maryland suburbs, the pair of choppers cutting throw a salmon-edged evening in the nation’s capital, supporters will have plenty to worry them.

Trump is of an age that makes him vulnerable to a disease that has killed more than 207,000 Americans and infected 7.2 million, and of a weight that is considered unhealthy. Other than his trips to the golf course, he is not known as someone for exercise.

And as British prime minister Boris Johnson found to his discomfort, 10 days after being taken to hospital for routine tests after testing positive for coronavirus , he was moved to intensive care after his symptoms worsened.

Johnson, aged 56 and also not somebody celebrated for their devotion to exercise, was among the world leaders to send messages to Trump.

“Wishing my friend @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and @FLOTUS a quick recovery and good health,” he tweeted.

The flight to the hospital took left less than 15 minutes. What was the president mulling as they headed northwest across the city? What were his top aides thinking?

Politically, what must have surely weighed on their minds, was how this would play out in the coming 30 days before the November election. The president is already behind Biden in the national polls.

For someone obsessed with the idea of exuding strength, for someone drawn to many of the world’s more authoritarian leaders, Trump would not want to be seen as weak or feeble as people prepared to cast their vote, or fill in a mail-in ballot.

That is why long before he headed to hospital, the White House issued a statement saying that he, and not vice president Mike Pence, was still in control.

But what are the nation and the world to make of it?

No matter what the president may wish to claim, he is a man in his 70s, infected with an illness that has the power to sicken and kill and to lay people low. And now he is in hospital.

The White House press pool report noted that the president arrived in Marine One at the Walter Reed Landing Zone at 6.29pm.

It said he stepped from the helicopter alone, still wearing the mask, and got into a black SUV. He was followed by a couple of aides, including White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. 

It said that as his motorcade passed the press pool, which was positioned across the street from the landing zone, the president - seated on the right side of the vehicle - waved through the left window.  He did not stop to answer any questions.