Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and personal attorney to President Donald Trump, returned to his nightly conservative talk show Wednesday after a hospitalization earlier this month that left him in critical condition on a ventilator, the Associated Press reported.
“I have to thank everyone who sent me prayers and good will,” Giuliani said on “The Rudy Giuliani Show.” He specifically thanked his family, the medical staff who cared for him, and Trump, whom Giuliani said called him after he became ill.
Giuliani was hospitalized for viral pneumonia in early May at a facility in Palm Beach, Florida. The illness followed a September 2025 car crash in New Hampshire in which he suffered a fractured vertebra and other injuries.
Giuliani’s eight years as mayor were punctuated by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, and he later ran unsuccessfully for president in 2008. He eventually became a personal attorney and adviser to Trump and was a leading proponent of the president’s allegations of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, which Biden won. Trump and his allies lost dozens of lawsuits claiming fraud, and multiple recounts, reviews and audits found no signs of significant wrongdoing or error.
Two former Georgia election workers won a $148 million defamation judgment against Giuliani. As they sought to collect, the former federal prosecutor was found in contempt of court and faced a trial this winter over the ownership of some of his assets. Giuliani ultimately struck a deal that let him keep his homes and various belongings, including prized World Series rings, in exchange for unspecified compensation and a promise to stop speaking ill of the ex-election workers.
Last year, Trump said he was awarding Giuliani the Presidential Medal of Freedom.