Sleepy Don Sees Doc
Today's checkup raises important questions about Trump's health and veracity.
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HE SLEEPS in meetings. His mind wanders. His speech slurs. His hands are bruised, his legs swollen. He’s prone to angry outbursts. He turns 80 in a few weeks.
And today Trump undergoes his third scheduled medical checkup in 13 months, which is a lot.
White House spokespeople say Trump is in “excellent health,” but they lie for a living.
As recently as Friday, the president bragged about his cognitive scores but that could be a tell: The tests he touts are typically administered to detect and track dementia.
There is, of course, a long history of U.S. presidents lying or deflecting about their health problems. That doesn’t make it right.
Grover Cleveland had secret surgery on a cancerous tumor, even as his secretary of war denied rumors of the procedure.
William McKinley suffered from eye problems and nearly died of pneumonia as his spokesman called rumors of the president’s poor health “foolish stories.”
Woodrow Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke. It was covered up by a litany of officials including his wife, Edith, who effectively ran the government for the remaining 17 months of his presidency.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a victim of polio, largely hid his confinement to a wheelchair with the help of his staff and an obliging press corps.
Dwight Eisenhower was hospitalized with a heart attack. His press team initially told reporters he had an upset stomach.
Joe Biden’s mental and physical decline was evident to the country but denied by the president and his staff until it was too late. It took a disastrous debate performance for Democratic leaders to force Biden out of his re-election campaign. The unforced error helped put Trump back in the White House.
If history is a guide, you’ll hear Trump brag about his health today. He might invoke the laughable diagnosis of former White House physician Ronny Jackson, who once told Trump he was healthier than Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, both of whom were at least 15 years younger than Trump when first sworn into office. Bush and Obama also exercised routinely, unlike Trump who feasts on fast food and considers golf his only workout.
“I just care that he was my doctor and he said I’m the healthiest human being he’s ever — Ronny, am I healthier than these guys back here?” Trump said in 2016, standing in front of the U.S. Naval Academy’s football team.
“Yes sir,” Jackson replied.
“All right,” Trump said. “See, this is why I like him.”
FIGHT FOMO: While this newsletter is free, most of you are missing out on the daily “Morning Read-in” for paid subscribers. Today’s MRI featured the president’s checkup along with four others stories:
Trump waffles on Iran.
Iran fires back.
Pope Leo XIV channels Pope Leo XIII on artificial intelligence.
College-educated men are working shorting hours and spending more time with their families
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John Kennedy had Addison's disease, fatal if not treated. He seriously wounded his back in the Second World War rescuing navy personnel who had been torpedoed out of their ship. He was friends with Ben Bradlee, a journalist who later became the managing editor of the Washington Post and, with the NY times, broke the leak of the Pentagon Papers.