The president of the USA Joe Biden still has “complete confidence” in Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, White House spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre said today, after backlash over the Pentagon chief’s delay in informing him that he had been hospitalized.

THE Lloyd Austin he was admitted to the Walter Reed military hospital on January 1 but for days he had not informed even President Biden about his hospitalization.

Joe Biden “still has complete confidence in Secretary Austin,” she said Karin Jean-Pierre to reporters accompanying the 81-year-old Democratic president on his trip to South Carolina. He said President Biden contacted Austin on Saturday and appreciated the fact that the defense secretary “took full responsibility” for not informing the White House about his hospitalization.

“There is no plan for anything other than Secretary Austin remaining in his position,” the spokesman for the White House National Security Council clarified. John Kirby.

The former US president Donald Trump, who is considered a favorite for the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election, argued on Sunday that Lloyd Austin should be fired for “improper professional conduct and dangerous dereliction of duty.” “He was gone for a week and no one, including his boss, the dishonest Joe Biden, had any idea where he was or where he could be,” Trump wrote in a post on the Truth Social platform.