Donald Trump: My brain health is exceptional
Former president, 77, releases ‘exceptional’ doctor’s note as his successor turns 81 — but skimps on specifics.
Donald Trump has released a glowing report on his health, claiming that he has lost weight through an “improved diet” and that his cognitive exam scores are “exceptional”, in an apparent jab at President Biden’s advancing age.
Trump issued the report, timed to coincide with Biden’s 81st birthday on Monday, from his personal physician, Dr Bruce Aronwald. In the one-page document, Aronwald said he had conducted a comprehensive examination of Trump in September and found the ex-president to be in “excellent” health.
Aronwald said Trump, 77, had lost weight with a better diet and “daily physical activity”. The report gave no details, however, and excluded Trump’s weight, weight loss or blood pressure. Aronwald said that Trump’s “physical exams were well within the normal range and his cognitive exams were exceptional”.
Trump’s weight and general health have long been the subject of speculation, folded into the legend the former president and his aides have built around him. When he reported to Fulton county jail in Georgia before one of the four criminal cases against him in August, his height was given as 6ft 3in and his weight as 215lb.
Despite his paunch, Trump’s declared vital statistics compared favourably with athletes in their prime. Social media lit up with a gallery of pictures comparing the former president to Muhammad Ali (6ft 3in, 214lb) and the Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (6ft 2in, 215lb). Reporters noted that Trump appeared to have lost 25lb and grown an inch since he was arrested in New York in April, the first criminal indictment against him.
The release of Aronwald’s fawning but vague report appeared calculated to underscore Biden’s age as the president grapples with low approval ratings. A string of opinion polls have shown Biden trailing Trump, as voters consistently report that the president is too old to serve a second term. Already the oldest serving president in US history, Biden would be 86 by the time he left office after a second term.
The White House is reported to have adopted a “bubble wrap” strategy to prevent Biden from falling in public or getting lost as he tries to leave the stage at rallies. During the annual ceremony to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey on Monday, Biden confused Taylor Swift with Britney Spears in a rambling aside about the weather in Brazil.
Trump has repeatedly mocked Biden’s age and mental fitness. The former president has made a series of recent gaffes himself, however. At a rally in Iowa this month, Trump forgot which city he was in. He said recently said that Hungarian leader, Viktor Orban, was the leader of Turkey, and has repeatedly mispronounced the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas as “hummus”.
The Times
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