Former President Donald Trump recommended Tuesday night that Americans get vaccinated for COVID-19, a potentially key endorsement as recent polling has shown some Republicans are expressing reluctance toward being inoculated.

“I would recommend it,” Trump said in a phone interview with Fox News. “And I would recommend it to a lot of people that don't want to get it, and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly.”

Trump, however, also said he was sympathetic to those who choose not to get vaccinated. 

“We have our freedoms, and we have to live by that, and I agree with that also," said Trump, whose administration's "Operation Warp Speed" helped in the development and rollout of vaccines. “But it's a great vaccine, it's a safe vaccine, and it's something that works.”

It’s the second time Trump has publicly endorsed the vaccines — he also did so at last month’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida. But, unlike other political figures, he has not made a forceful push to promote the shots. 

Trump and his wife, Melania, were not vaccinated on camera, unlike former Vice President Mike Pence, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who received their vaccines live on television. The Trumps received the vaccine before leaving the White House in January, but that only became public earlier this month when one of his advisers disclosed it to the press.

And Trump is the only living former president who does not appear in a public service announcement campaign urging Americans to get vaccinated.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, said Sunday that it would be a “game changer” if Trump used his popularity among Republicans to persuade his followers to get the vaccine.

According to a Monmouth University poll released last week, 36% of Republicans say they don’t plan to get inoculated, compared to 6% of Democrats; an NPR-PBS Newshour-Marist poll found that 49% of Republican men said they would not get the shot, compared to 6% of Democratic men who responded the same way.

In an interview that aired Wednesday morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Biden said he’s perplexed by some people’s refusal to get vaccinated.

“I just don't understand this sort of macho thing about 'I'm not going to get the vaccine, I have a right as an American, my freedom to not do it,’” Biden said. “Well, why don't you be a patriot, protect other people?”

During his national address last week, Biden said he hoped Americans could return to hosting small backyard cookouts by the Fourth of July. But he reiterated in the "GMA" interview that Americans must do their part in the meantime to combat the pandemic.

“I won't even be able to meet to July Fourth deadline unless people listened, wear masks, wash their hands and socially distance because not everyone by July Fourth will have been vaccinated,” he said.

Biden received his two doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Dec. 21 and Jan. 11. He said being vaccinated has changed his life in two ways.

“I can hug my grandkids now,” he said. “They come over to the house. I can see them. I'm able to be with them.

“And secondly, it has changed my life in the sense that I've been able to demonstrate to other people ... that it is safe to take the vaccine. It's important to take the vaccine.”