We’ve all heard the claims: Donald Trump is demented! He’s always falling asleep! He’s cognitively impaired! Invoke the 25th Amendment now!
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Yet Trump is the guy who, unlike Joe Biden, gets regular, comprehensive physical and cognitive exams and releases the results. He’s the guy who spontaneously answers hundreds of reporter questions a day, and without cheat sheets with reporters’ photos, pre-arranged questions and answers, and stage directions like “then you say…”. He’s the guy who allows reporters to cover multi-hour cabinet meetings, which he runs, start to finish. And if there was video of him saying things likeTRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! We’d be seeing it run on a continuous media loop. We’re not.
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We don’t see Trump, like Joe Biden, obviously under the influence of psychoactive drugs just to give him some semblance of sentience and the ability to move sort of normally. And while Trump sometimes navigates aircraft stairs carefully—who doesn’t at 80?—we’re not seeing continuous media loops of him repeatedly falling up or down stairs or face planting at the Air Force Academy.
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But how is he really doing? Fox reports:
“President Donald Trump remains in excellent health, demonstrating strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and overall physical function,” Navy Capt. Sean P. Barbabella, the president’s physician, wrote in the memo.
“His demanding daily schedule, including multiple high-level meetings, public engagements and regular physical activity, continues to support his overall well-being,” Barbabella continued. “Cognitive and physical performance are excellent.”
There’s something we never saw with Biden, and it’s an important point. Trump, who just turned 80, illustrates a necessity of aging: regular physical and mental exercise. In essence, use it or lose it. Bidens’ handlers’ mouthpieces used to hilariously lie, saying 30-year-olds couldn’t possibly keep up with the virile, Energizer Bunny Biden. That, while routinely calling a cap on Biden’s activity by mid-day. Yet Trump gets little sleep—another common reality of aging–and routinely puts in 18 to 20-hour days.
The evaluation included diagnostic studies, laboratory testing and consultations with 22 specialty providers.
Trump, who turns 80 in June, is 75 inches tall and weighs 238 pounds. He has a resting heart rate of 73 beats per minute, a blood pressure reading of 105/71 mmHg and an oxygen saturation level of 98% on room air, according to the report.
Yes, he’s overweight and is taking the kinds of cholesterol and blood pressure meds tens of millions of Americans take, but his stats are better than most Americans his age, and he aced a cognitive assessment. If his results were a lie, could 22 providers and their aides keep that quiet?
No one will be surprised to discover CNN found a doctor—Jonathan Reiner–willing to diagnose Trump without ever being in the same room with him:
He said he would like to see a better explanation for some of Trump’s “visible health concerns,” including the bruising on his hands, which the White House has tried to explain away as a result of frequent handshakes, and swollen ankles.
What?! A guy who shakes hundreds of hands a day has bruises? A guy on his feet at age 80, 18-20 hours a day, has swollen ankles? Scandalous!
Reiner then brought up Trump’s apparent inability to stay awake during some events, and offered a diagnosis, one that he called “severe.”
“The president has severe daytime somnolence,” he said. “He falls asleep very often. He’s fallen asleep in the Oval Office on multiple occasions with people talking to him in the cabinet room, and there was concern yesterday that he might have fallen asleep at Arlington National Cemetery during Memorial Day observances.”
Uh-huh. And where is the video of these episodes? I’ve occasionally nodded off when I was much younger, during interminable meetings and training sessions. If Trump were experiencing routine, “severe” daytime somnolence, wouldn’t that also be running on a constant media loop? Trump’s people had a bit of fun with it:
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And with CNN:
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And with Trump antagonist Jake Tapper:
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Remember Psychiatrist Bandi X Lee, then of Yale, who repeatedly diagnosed Trump from afar during his first term? That was a bit much even for Yale, which fired her. She sued for wrongful termination and lost.
The prestigious university had questions about her judgment and ability to teach after she started making medical proclamations about Trump and others close to him, the newspaper reported.
Her statements go against the American Psychiatric Association rule that prohibits professional opinions of public figures who were not examined, her own lawsuit stated.
Imagine that. Perhaps the appropriate licensing and/or academic authorities might want to look into the distance diagnoses of Doctors Reiner and Faust?
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer, and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
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