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Trump Briefly Leaves Hospital During COVID-19 Treatment To Wave At Supporters From Motorcade

October 4, 2020 / 5:03 PM PDT / KCAL News

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WASHINGTON (CBSLA/CBS News) -- President Donald Trump received a mixture of praise and criticism on Sunday after his brief departure from the hospital to wave at supporters.

U.S. President Donald Trump wears a protective mask while waving as he is driven in a motorcade past supporters outside of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S., on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020. Trump briefly left his hospital in a car to greet supporters gathered outside, after posting a video on Twitter saying he was about to make a surprise visit. Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Dr. James Phillips, chief of disaster medicine at George Washington University and an attending physician at Walter Reed Medical Center, tweeted that Trump's surprise greeting from inside his motorcade was "theater" and "insanity."

"Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential "drive-by" just now has to be quarantined for 14 days," Phillips tweeted. "They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity."

Phillips followed up with a second tweet saying his "thoughts are with the Secret Service forced to play."

"That Presidential SUV is not only bulletproof, but hermetically sealed against chemical attack," Phillips wrote. "The risk of COVID19 transmission inside is as high as it gets outside of medical procedures. The irresponsibility is astounding."