President Trump is nearing the one-year mark since his last routine medical checkup, an endeavor that last year provoked speculation and commentary about whether the commander in chief is physically and mentally up to the job.
The White House has not provided the Washington Examiner with an answer to the question of whether Trump plans to have his annual exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., or whether he will release his medical records to the public, as he did around this time last year, despite multiple inquiries.
Trump’s health has not been at the center of national dialogue in the same way that it was before his first exam in the White House. But ever since before the 2016 election, and into his presidency, Trump’s critics have weaponized questions about his mental and physical health, seizing on reports that his only exercise is golfing and that he enjoys Diet Coke and fast food.
Critics have mocked Trump’s personal longtime physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, for writing in a letter when Trump was running for president that he would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency,” a phrase later reported to have been dictated by Trump himself. They have speculated that Trump’s speeches and tweets are evidence of mental deterioration, despite medical associations pleading for such “armchair psychiatry” to stop.
But Trump, 72, also has frequently said he has abstained from drugs, tobacco, and alcohol his whole life, and his allies have marveled at his stamina. When he underwent his first physical as president on Jan. 12, 2018, he received a glowing bill of health from Dr. Ronny Jackson, the White House doctor who also worked under former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Jackson read the results of the exam to the public and took questions from reporters for nearly an hour. He said Trump had “incredibly good genes” and declared him “fit for duty.”
Members of the media openly second-guessed the results. In the months that followed, Jackson faced questions about the credibility of his assessment. In April 2018, after Trump nominated Jackson to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, the doctor became the subject of rumors from anonymous sources who said he would get drunk on the job and was improperly prescribing medications to White House staff. Jackson fiercely denied the accusations but eventually withdrew his name from consideration.
Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., who introduced legislation last year that would obligate presidential candidates to receive a medical exam from naval doctors, said he initially thought Trump’s assessment from Jackson underscored that an unbiased medical review was possible. Now, he is torn about the results.
“I felt good about the fact that we were dealing with a naval doctor who is an admiral versus some quack Trump got to sign a letter … I felt good about that aspect of it,” Boyle said. “The later things that we learned about Dr. Jackson did raise some concerns.”
A new exam is bound to bring about a new round of scrutiny, even if it is conducted by the current White House physician, Dr. Sean Conley.
Presidents don’t necessarily have annual physicals or release them to the public every year. Former President George H.W. Bush had at least four routine medical exams while in office, Bill Clinton had six, Bush 43 had at least five, and Obama had at least four, a Washington Examiner review of presidential archives shows.
No law demands that a president discloses any medical records, and the president, just like any patient, must consent to any information his doctor shares. Past presidents have not disclosed their entire medical histories, and there is no standard requirement.
Some lawmakers, such as Boyle, believe that must change.
“In law right now, all of us — the American people — are flying blind when it comes to this very important information,” Boyle said. “We are talking about someone who can launch nuclear war. It’s important that the American people have this information.”
Politicians invite attacks by disclosing medical details. Dr. Bandy Lee, a Yale University psychiatrist, spoke to dozens of Democratic lawmakers in 2017 about the president but has kept away from issuing a diagnosis, saying only that he shows signs of mental instability and dangerousness.
Lee, editor of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, a 2017 collection of essays questioning Trump’s mental health, said she has received more requests from lawmakers to meet, but she stopped consulting with them because she didn’t want to appear partisan, and Republicans had not reached out.
“They were concerned that they could not trust him with the powers of the presidency, mainly the power to launch nuclear weapons at the time,” she said of lawmakers who consulted with her. “It’s still a concern to them.”
Information may be seized by House Democrats to try to remove Trump from power. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., introduced a resolution in August 2017 calling for a mental and physical exam of the president that would lead to removing him from office using the 25th Amendment.
Asked about the issue on Wednesday, she invoked a softer tone.
“There are plenty of great doctors in the United States,” Lofgren said. “Somebody should give him a thorough examination. Obviously, I don’t agree with the president on most things, but I certainly hope he’s healthy.”
Trump has released a considerable amount of detail about his health. Jackson reported that Trump took Propecia to promote hair growth, Crestor to lower his cholesterol, aspirin for heart health, cream for rosacea, and a daily multivitamin. He said Trump was 6 feet, 3 inches tall and weighed 239 pounds, a weight that is just one pound short of being classified as “obese” under the body mass index criteria.
The medical report drew ridicule from several news outlets. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon who works for CNN, declared that Trump “no question” had heart disease, despite Jackson reporting that was not the case.
Other reporters accused the president of lying about his weight because a former driver’s license said his height was an inch shorter than the reported 6 feet, 3 inches, which would place him in the category of “obese.” Reporters did not ask Jackson during the hour-long interview whether he personally measured Trump’s height or whether Trump self-reported it.
For this year’s medical exam, Lofgren said a doctor other than Jackson should be at the helm, given the rumors that surfaced, and said the results should be made public.
“If you can’t stand the privacy intrusion, then you shouldn’t run for president,” Lofgren said. “That’s part of the deal, that you don’t have a private life when it comes to your health. The public has a right to know.”
