Giuliani returns to radio show after viral pneumonia hospitalization

Rudy Giuliani returned to “The Rudy Giuliani Show” on Wednesday evening after a hospital stay for viral pneumonia that had left the 81-year-old in critical condition and on a ventilator in Palm Beach, Florida.

Giuliani told viewers he was on the mend but not fully recovered, a familiar posture for a man who has remained visible through illness, age and a long list of political and legal setbacks. His spokesperson, Ted Goodman, said Giuliani was now breathing on his own after being monitored in the hospital as a precautionary measure following mechanical ventilation.

Goodman said Giuliani’s condition was complicated by restrictive airway disease, which he has linked to exposure to dust and toxins from the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Before he was hospitalized, Giuliani had been coughing and sounding raspy on the show, an on-air warning sign that became more serious in early May when his condition turned critical.

His return carried the weight of a public figure whose platform still matters inside the Trump-era media ecosystem. Giuliani served as New York City mayor from 1994 to 2001, became known as “America’s mayor” after the World Trade Center attacks, and later recast himself as a conservative media host and ally of Donald Trump. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, named Time magazine’s Person of the Year, and ran unsuccessfully for president in 2008.

Trump was among the people who sent well-wishes during the hospitalization, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Giuliani’s successors as New York City mayor, Eric Adams and Zohran Mamdani, Goodman said. Trump also praised Giuliani on Truth Social, calling him a “True Warrior” and saying he was the best mayor in New York City history.

On his return, Giuliani thanked his family, the medical staff who treated him and Trump, whom he said called after he became sick. The appearance came after another recent health scare in September, when he was hospitalized following a New Hampshire car crash that left him with a fractured vertebra and other injuries.

Giuliani’s broadcast comeback also unfolded under the shadow of his legal collapse. He was later ordered to pay $148 million to two Georgia election workers in a defamation case, a judgment that underscored how far he has fallen from the stature he held in the years after 9/11. Even so, his return to the microphone showed that Giuliani remains a durable presence in conservative politics, still able to draw attention at a moment when his personal history, health and politics are all tightly bound together.