Rudy Giuliani ‘alert and talking’ as he battles back from grim diagnosis that landed him in hospital

Rudy Giuliani was well enough to talk to his relieved children on Monday evening as he battled pneumonia in a Florida hospital, the Daily Mail can reveal.

The former New York mayor, 81, was breathing on his own and was able to communicate with Caroline and Andrew Giulliani after being taken off life support, a well-placed source said.

The pair rushed to Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach after their ailing father was taken for treatment in critical but stable condition Sunday evening.

Democratic voter Caroline, 40, has clashed with the ‘American mayor’ over his steadfast support for President Donald Trump after he backed Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

But the California-based activist filmmaker put aside their political differences to stand at his bedside Monday as the veteran police officer and lawyer made a slow but encouraging recovery.

There was also former professional golfer Andrew, 40, who worked for Trump during his first term and now heads the 2026 World Cup task force for the White House.

The source stressed that Giuliani’s condition remains serious and that he may spend several more days at the waterfront facility in Florida, a five-minute drive from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.

The former mayor of New York City contracted pneumonia on Sunday, which landed him in the hospital. He was reportedly in critical condition.

Rudy Giuliani at the September 11 commemoration in September

He held a live stream on his Facebook page on Friday evening where he could be heard coughing

John Catsimatidis, a billionaire grocery store and media mogul and longtime friend of Giuliani, said he heard the encouraging news Monday afternoon from a former close aide.

‘He’s talking, he’s alert. To me, that’s great news,” Catsimatidis said, according to the New York Post.

President Trump has praised Giuliani as a “true warrior” and as “by far the best mayor in the history of New York City.”

“Rudy had a tough weekend,” Giuliani’s business partner Tom von Essen said earlier.

Von Essen worked as New York City’s fire commissioner during the 9/11 terrorist attacks when Giuliani was mayor.

“Today is an important day,” he added.

Mayor Rudy Giuliani is recovering from pneumonia. On September 11, Mayor Giuliani ran to the towers to help those in need, which later led to a diagnosis of restrictive respiratory disease,” Giuliani’s spokesman Ted Goodman confirmed.

‘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.’

President Trump called Giuliani a “true warrior” in a post on Truth Social on Sunday

The 81-year-old held a livestream on his Facebook page on Friday evening in which he could be heard coughing.

When it started, he said, “My voice is a little bad, so I won’t be able to talk as loud as normal.”

Giuliani famously campaigned with Trump and a group of Republicans to overturn the 2020 election results, citing unverified fraud that later opened him up to defamation lawsuits he settled in court.

“Mayor Rudy Giuliani was the most transformative figure in the history of New York City politics,” wrote former Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino.

“He pulled off an economic and public security miracle in a relatively short time, and the city rose from the dead. I worked for the NYPD during the end of his second term. It was the honor of a lifetime.’

Giuliani most recently responded to comments made by comedian Jimmy Kimmel prior to the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Kimmel joked that Melania Trump had a “glow like an expectant widow,” sparking anger from the First Lady and the White House after the shooting.

Giuliani also gave his two cents, calling Kimmel an “incompetent son of a bitch,” to which Kimmel responded by saying Giuliani “rose from the grave to weigh in on the ongoing drama.”

Trump and Giuliani at the groundbreaking of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in 1995

Giuliani dressed in drag in a comedy video he made with Trump in the early 2000s

Giuliani holds up a newspaper touting his mayoral victory in November 1993

In November last year, Giuliani was pardoned by Trump, among other Republicans, for his role in overturning the election against President Biden.

The former NYC mayor gave an infamous speech outside the Four Seasons landscaping company in Pennsylvania as Trump desperately tried to regain the presidency.

In 2023, Giuliani filed for bankruptcy with staggering $153 million in debt to creditors, including two Georgia election workers he defamed.

Giuliani was elected mayor of New York in 1993 after serving as one of the country’s top prosecutors, targeting gangsters and corrupt Wall Street traders.

He was praised for his widespread crackdown on crime, using the ‘broken windows’ philosophy and implementing the controversial stop-and-frisk programme.

Giuliani ran for Senate in 2000 but dropped out of his race against Hillary Clinton after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

He ran for president in 2008 before dropping out and supporting John McCain.