On Friday night, Rudy Giuliani hosted his online show from Palm Beach, Florida, coughing through the introduction and telling his audience his voice was a little under the weather.
By Sunday, he was on a ventilator in a Florida hospital in critical condition. The decline between Friday and Sunday was rapid enough to alarm even people who have been watching Giuliani’s deterioration for years.
Giuliani’s spokesperson Ted Goodman confirmed Monday that the former mayor had been diagnosed with pneumonia, complicated by restrictive airway disease stemming from his exposure at Ground Zero during the September 11 attacks.
Mayor Rudy Giuliani is currently in the hospital, where he remains in critical but stable condition. Mayor Giuliani is a fighter who has faced every challenge in his life with unwavering strength, and he’s fighting with that same level of strength as we speak.
We do ask that you…
— Ted Goodman (@TedCGoodman) May 3, 2026
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The 9/11 connection is significant. Giuliani breathed the toxic air at the World Trade Center site in the days after the attacks, a decision that earned him considerable respect and left him with lasting respiratory damage. That damage is now compounding what would otherwise be a serious but manageable illness in a man his age.
“Mayor Rudy Giuliani is recovering from pneumonia,” Goodman’s statement read.
“On September 11th, Mayor Giuliani ran toward the towers to help those in need, which later led to a diagnosis of restrictive airway disease. This condition adds complications to any respiratory illness, and the virus quickly overwhelmed his body, requiring mechanical ventilation to maintain adequate oxygen and stabilize his condition. He is now breathing on his own, with his family and primary medical provider at his side. He remains in critical but stable condition. Please keep the prayers coming.”
Tom von Essen, who served as New York City Fire Commissioner under Giuliani during 9/11 and has remained a close associate, told the New York Post that Giuliani “had a tough weekend” and confirmed the pneumonia diagnosis. “Today is an important day,” von Essen added. The characterization of Monday as important, without elaboration, was its own kind of statement.
Trump responded on Truth Social Sunday evening. “Our fabulous Rudy Giuliani, a True Warrior, and the Best Mayor in the History of New York City, BY FAR, has been hospitalized, and is in critical condition,” he wrote.
“What a tragedy that he was treated so badly by the Radical Left Lunatics, Democrats ALL – AND HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING! They cheated on the Elections, fabricated hundreds of stories, did anything possible to destroy our Nation, and now, look at Rudy. So sad!” Trump has also announced plans to award Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Former Mayor Eric Adams’ office issued a statement rising above the political history between the two men. “From his years as a federal prosecutor to leading New York City through its darkest day on 9/11, he stood with this city when it needed him most,” the statement read. “Those contributions deserve respect.”
The arc of Giuliani’s life covers considerable ground. He prosecuted the Mafia and Wall Street in the 1980s, transformed New York’s crime statistics in the 1990s, became America’s Mayor after 9/11 and then spent his final political years spreading election fraud claims that cost him his law license, $148 million in a defamation settlement and most of his reputation.
Featured image via X screengrab
