The president has been a patient at the Walter Reed military medical center near Washington since Friday, where he has a special suite that allows him to carry out his normal duties.
“I had no choice, because I just didn’t want to stay in the White House,” Trump said in a video apparently filmed at the hospital.
“I was given that alternative: stay in the White House, lock yourself in, don’t ever leave. Don’t even go to the Oval Office, just stay upstairs and enjoy it.”
Trump said this would have involved seeing no one in person, which was not his approach to the presidency.
“I can’t be locked up in a room upstairs and totally safe, and just say, ‘Hey whatever happens, happens, I can’t do that,'” he added.
Trump’s message was ambiguous and many at first interpreted the statement to be a defence of his behaviour — continuing with rallies and rarely wearing masks during a viral outbreak that has killed more than 200,000 in the US.
“We have to confront problems, as a leader you have to confront problems,” he went on.
“There’s never been a great leader that would have done that."