Some in the press are accusing President Trump of being secretive about his medical history, even though his former personal doctor in the White House, Dr. Ronny Jackson, answered questions in January for about an hour about Trump’s health.
Claims that Trump is hiding his medical background began to proliferate in the press on Wednesday, when a Washington Post story claimed, “A full 16 months into his presidency, Trump’s health, like many other personal details, remains shrouded in mystery.” That story said Trump and the White House “have only compounded the confusion by insisting on near-secrecy about his health and refusing to answer basic questions that predecessors have commonly addressed.”
The full details of a recent physical exam led by Jackson, however, were released in January. The report included that Trump’s cholesterol is too high, he is overweight, and that he has rosacea, a common skin condition that causes redness and dryness. Among other details he provided is that Trump takes a pill that attempts to reduce male pattern baldness.
Jackson laid out all those details over nearly an hour at a White House briefing in January.
The Post story did not specify how Trump’s health “remains shrouded in mystery” but it noted a current “brouhaha” related to Trump’s former physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, who claimed Tuesday that Trump’s former bodyguard and two other men raided his office last year and seized all records related to the president. Bornstein also claimed that Trump “dictated” a letter, which Bornstein signed, assessing his own health during the 2016 campaign.
That led some in the press to start arguing that nothing at all was known about Trump’s medical background.
On Wednesday, Daily Beast Politics Editor Sam Stein said on Twitter that, “We didn’t and don’t know what medical condition the president is in,” though he made no mention of the exam results delivered by Jackson, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama.
We giggle because it’s Bornstein and of course his letter was ridiculous. But this should be a major scandal. A presidential candidate deprived voters of immensely critical information: that of his own health. We didn’t and don’t know what medical condition the president is in.
— Sam Stein (@samstein) May 2, 2018
Also on Wednesday, Washington Post political blogger Aaron Blake said the bar for medical disclosures has been “lowered” under Trump, though past presidents have also declined to reveal their full health histories.
In January 2001, the final year of President Bill Clinton’s second term, a reporter asked his physician, Dr. Connie Mariano, if his full medical history would be released.
“No,” she said, according to a transcript. “In fact, no other president has released their entire records.”
