Trump faces his annual physical. Here’s what to know about his health – The Times
Every month this year President Trump has been filmed appearing to rest his eyes during meetings.
Questions have been raised about how much sleep he is getting — given frequent social media posting in the small hours — and also about bruising on his hands, a rash on his neck and his swollen ankles.
Trump has repeatedly said that he naturally sleeps very little, often for four to five hours a night, and the White House has consistently said he is in good health. Asked about why his eyes were closed during a meeting, Trump said in an interview in January: “Sometimes they’ll take a picture of me blinking […] they’ll catch me with the blink.” In the same month he said that he shut his eyes during a cabinet meeting because of boredom rather than tiredness.
It is perhaps not surprising that the oldest man ever sworn in as president, beating the record set by his predecessor Joe Biden by 159 days, might be showing some signs of ageing.
In the great tradition of beguiling medical bulletins from the White House, Trump’s first term physician, Ronnie Jackson, declared that “I told the president if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years he might live to be 200”.
Before his annual physical check-up on Tuesday and his 80th birthday next month, Trump continues to reassure supporters that he is both physically robust — saying earlier this month “I feel the same as I felt 50 years ago” — and also mentally sharp, the only president to have “aced” cognitive tests three times.
“You have five doctors sitting there and … the questions are very easy at the beginning, then pretty easy, then pretty hard by the time you get to the end, there are not a lot of people in the room can get them, believe me,” Trump informed the crowd at a rally in New York state on Friday.
“So the first question was, you have a bear, a snake, an elephant and a horse. Name the horse. That’s the horse. The second question is a little tougher,” he said.
“Toward the end, they had a question like, pick a number, sir, any number. OK. 203. Multiply times nine, divided by two, add on 1324, subtract 1292. Sir, multiply it out one more time by 19. What is the answer, sir? I got it right … and the one doctor said, I’ve been doing this test for 20 years, I’ve never seen anybody ace it. … So I’ve taken it and I’ve aced it all three times, I’ll tell you, because it is a positive thing.”
Trump was judged to be in “excellent cognitive and physical health” according to a White House summary of his previous annual medical examination in April last year. “A comprehensive neurological examination revealed no abnormalities in his mental status, cranial nerves, motor and sensory functions, reflexes, gait, and balance. Cognitive function, assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), was normal with a score of 30 out of 30,” his White House physician, Captain Sean Barbabella, wrote.
There were tests for depression and anxiety and Trump recorded a score “within the normal range for both” although numbers were not given.
In October Trump went for scans and inoculations before foreign travel, after which Barbabella said he “continues to demonstrate excellent overall health”.
“His cardiac age — a validated measure of cardiovascular vitality via ECG — was found to be approximately 14 years younger than his chronological age,” Barbabella wrote.
There have been more signs of apparent tiredness this year, however, with cameras catching Trump closing his eyes for extended periods regularly.
This has occurred during a dairy policy event in January, a Board of Peace meeting in February, a public safety roundtable in March and a healthcare affordability event in April.
When he was photographed with eyes closed at his desk for at least 15 seconds at a stretch during a maternal health event on May 11, the White House Rapid Response team leapt into action, posting: “He was blinking, you absolute moron.”
Bruises on Trump’s right hand were initially explained by Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, as due to “shaking hands all day every day” until a dark blue patch appeared on his left hand, which Trump said happened because he “clipped a table”. In January he explained that he takes a high daily dose of aspirin to thin his blood. “They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal. “I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?”
A rash first seen on his neck in March during a Medal of Honor Ceremony was caused by a cream that the president was using as a “preventative skin treatment”, Barbabella said, without detailing the underlying cause.
Trump is occasionally photographed with swollen ankles, which the White House last year explained were due to chronic venous insufficiency, calling this “a benign and common condition, particularly in individuals over the age of 70”.
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