Rudy Giuliani remains in critical condition with pneumonia.

Rudy Giuliani, former NYC mayor and former personal lawyer to Donald Trump, speaks to the press after leaving Federal District court in Manhattan on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. Giuliani was in a Florida hospital in critical condition, his spokesman said Sunday. (Jefferson Siegel/The New York Times)

By JONAH E. BROMWICH

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, was still in critical condition as he recovered from pneumonia in a Florida hospital on Monday, his spokesperson said.

The spokesperson, Ted Goodman, said that the lung infection had overwhelmed Giuliani and that he had required a ventilator to breathe. But as of Monday, Goodman said, Giuliani was breathing on his own “with his family and primary medical provider at his side.”

“Mayor Giuliani is the ultimate fighter — as he has demonstrated throughout his life — and he is winning this battle,” Goodman said in a statement, adding, “Please keep the prayers coming.”

On Sunday, Goodman had announced that Giuliani was in a Florida hospital in critical condition, but did not elaborate on the cause or the former mayor’s symptoms.

It is unclear when Giuliani, 81, was taken to the hospital.

President Donald Trump, in a post on Truth Social on Sunday, called Giuliani a “True Warrior, and the Best Mayor in the History of New York City, BY FAR.” He used the occasion to again advance his false claim that Democrats “cheated” in the 2020 election.

“They cheated on the Elections, fabricated hundreds of stories, did anything possible to destroy our Nation, and now, look at Rudy. So sad!” he wrote.

Giuliani has struggled with legal and financial problems in recent years, and in the summer of 2025, he was involved in a car crash in New Hampshire in which he suffered a fractured vertebra. After that, Giuliani made at least one public appearance in a wheelchair.

On Monday, Goodman said that Giuliani had been diagnosed with restrictive airway disease stemming from his proximity to ground zero in Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001, and that the condition made respiratory illnesses more threatening.

It is unclear whether Giuliani has publicly mentioned such a diagnosis before. But the former mayor has noted that he was a frequent presence at ground zero, and in recent years his lawyers have alluded to potential lung disease related to toxicity from the attacks.

Giuliani became mayor in January 1994 after he defeated Mayor David Dinkins, who was running for a second term. He remained in office until December 2001 and helped lead the city in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Later, he became a personal lawyer to Trump during the president’s first term and quickly became embroiled in a number of investigations related to the presidency.

Giuliani was a crucial part of the team that helped Trump advance the claim that he won the 2020 election. After Trump left office, Giuliani was indicted several times and contended with a number of costly defamation suits related to those efforts. Now disbarred, he has kept a far lower profile during Trump’s second term in office.