President Donald Trump told Americans "to get out there" and not fear COVID-19 as he returned to the White House on Monday, but removing his mask on the balcony at the White House left critics concerned and full of fear, if not shaking in anger.
Trump wore a mask as he walked out of the helicopter that flew him back from a military hospital outside Washington. He then climbed the stairs of the White House South Portico, where he removed it and posed for pictures, waving, saluting, and giving thumbs-up signs.
He then turned to walk into the White House, his mask still in his pocket, TV footage showed.
"I would hope that the president, having gone through what he went through – and I'm glad he seems to be coming along pretty well – would communicate the right lesson to the American people: Masks matter," Democratic presidential challenger and former Vice President Joe Biden said at a NBC News town hall from Miami.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she hoped Trump's decision to return to the White House was not politically motivated and she expressed concern that he could become a "long hauler," a term that refers to those who suffer COVID-19 complications over an extended period.
One anti-Trump reporter from The Washngton Post, Jennifer Rubin, was so distraught, she made a hyperbolic call for Walter Reed Medical Center to be "defunded."
"Having him come back so soon is alarming to many, and certainly for me, from an occupational hazard standpoint," Dr. Anthony Harris, a workplace safety expert, told Washington Examiner.
South Carolina's Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics chairman Dr. Anthony Alberg called the discharge "highly concerning."
"The clue that's most concerning is the steroids," Alberg told the Examiner.
Dexamethasone, which Trump is taking, are given to COVID-19 patients "in the advanced stages of disease to prevent lung inflammation, and to help a patient who's really having difficulty breathing, to breathe," he added. "When you look at that regimen of therapies, it points towards a picture of a patient that is not doing that great."
Trump was released Monday from Walter Reed Medical Center after being admitted Friday.
"Don't let it dominate you. Don't be afraid of it," Trump said in a recorded video message. "We're going back, we're going back to work. We're going to be out front. ... Don't let it dominate your lives. Get out there, be careful."
Trump, 74, has not had a fever in more than 72 hours and his oxygen levels are normal, his medical team told reporters in front of the hospital before his release.
Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., cheered the president's return and apparent triumph over the highly contagious disease. She even tweeted out an edited video that shows a wrestling match between Trump and COVID-19.
"COVID stood NO chance against @realDonaldTrump," Loeffler captioned the video in her tweet, posted a few hours before Trump's exit from the hospital and appearance back at the White House.
The video is from WrestleMania 23 in 2007, when Trump took on WWE boss Vince McMahon during a staged billionaires' bout, The Hill reported.
Obesity specialist at New York's Northwell Health-Huntington Hospital Dr. David Buchin told the Washington Examiner that Trump looked "pretty good."
"He wasn't coughing; he didn't look sick," Buchin told the Examiner. "A lot of these COVID patients look very, very sick.
"It really depends on his oxygenation, his bloodwork, his X-ray," he added. "If all of those checked out fine, there's really no reason why he couldn't go back."
Information from Reuters and The Associated Press was used in this report.