President Donald Trump’s blood oxygen level sank to a precariously low level after he announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus last year, according to a new book by Mark Meadows, his former chief of staff.
The new details contradict Trump’s denials this year that his COVID bout was more dire than White House medical officials had acknowledged at the time.
Meadows’ book, titled “The Chief’s Chief,” goes on sale Tuesday. He describes his tenure in the White House, alternately promoting Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him and attacking the news media. Meadows also revealed previously undisclosed details about the former president’s medical condition in October 2020.
Trump, who has long been fearful of appearing weak, has tried to camouflage those details. The White House staff and members of his medical team aided that effort, publicly downplaying how sick he was at the time. The former president denied a detailed New York Times report this year that he was more ill than his aides had revealed, with depressed oxygen levels and lung infiltrates, which occur when they are inflamed and filled with fluid or bacteria.
Meadows recounts in extraordinary detail how severe Trump’s illness was.
On Friday, Oct. 2, 2020, hours after the president announced on Twitter that he had tested positive for the virus, he recorded a blood oxygen level of about 86%, Meadows wrote. That is roughly 10 points below what would be considered normal. Most...
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