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Trump not well? A look at the health scares POTUS has had during his presidency so far

The president's sudden visit to Walter Reed last November gave rise to fears that he is having a health condition but the Republican has always refuted them

President Donald Trump has courted a number of controversies during his stay in the White House since January 2017 and one of them is related to his health. Last November, Trump made a sudden visit to Walter Reed Medical Center which gave birth to speculations around his fitness. However, the White House explained that it was just a routine annual check-up for the president and it was done ahead of a busy election year. But the version did not convince many.

Recently, a new book (‘Donald Trump V. The United States: Inside the Struggle to Stop a President’) by the New York Times’ Pulitzer-winning reporter Michael S Schmidt revealed that Vice President Mike Pence was kept on standby to take over as the president if Trump had to undergo a procedure for which he needed anesthesia. The revelation came a few months after the White House released results of the president’s annual physical which said while he gained a pound or so from last year, his cholesterol level has dropped. White House physician Sean Conley wrote in a memo: “There were no findings of significance or changes to report.”

According to BBC, he has visited the Walter Reed Medical Center nine times since taking office. His main Democratic rival for the presidential race is also aged 70 or over and personal health concerns have become a talking point on the campaign trail. Let us take a look at the times Trump's health became news headlines.

A former doctor of Trump praised his health in 2015

In December 2015, Trump, who was then preparing for the 2016 election, released a letter from his years-old physician saying that his latest medical examination “showed only positive results”. Dr Harold Bornstein, who was seeing Trump, 69 then, for 25 years at that point of time, said the businessman-turned-politician “has had no significant medical problems” and said in a signed statement that the latter’s blood pressure and lab results were “astonishingly excellent”. He also called Trump’s physical strength and stamina “excellent”.

Bornstein, however, conceded later that he wrote the letter certifying Trump’s fitness in just five minutes while a limo sent by the GOP candidate waited outside his office in Manhattan, NBC News reported in August 2016. Bornstein’s certificate for the president’s health has also come under question in 2018. The CNN said in a report published in May 2018: “That both doctors vouched for the health of a man who mainlines McDonald's and likes steak and meatloaf is incredible. He (Trump) doesn't exercise because, according to one report, he thinks every human has a finite amount of energy in their lifetime and he doesn't want to use his up.”

Bornstein told NBC News in an exclusive interview that in February 2017, a top White House aide who was one of Trump's longtime bodyguards, came along with a prominent lawyer at the Trump Organization and another person to his office without notice and took away all the medical records of Trump. The doctor called the incident a "raid" and it happened a couple of days after he told a media outlet that he had prescribed a hair-growth medicine for the president for years.

Trump got a clean chit on health in 2018

In January 2018, a year after Trump assumed office, the president got a clean chit from Rear Adm Ronny Jackson, a former physician to both Trump and his predecessor Barack Obama and former chief medical advisor to the incumbent. He said the Republican was in great cognitive and physical shape, quelling fears that the latter was seeing declining health and mental acuity. Jackson, who predicted that Trump would remain healthy for the entire duration of his office, however, conceded that his “bad cholesterol” levels were too high and needed to lose 10-15 pounds through exercising and dieting. Trump made a visit to Walter Reed the same month. 

Trump though has been found to be technically obese with a body-mass index of 30-plus, his cholesterol levels have dropped from 223 in 2018 to 196 in 2019 to 167 now. Even though there is no law as to what presidential candidates need to reveal when it comes to their medical history, Trump’s health has remained a subject of speculation. In 2017, Trump was the oldest president to take oath at 70 years and 220 days and if he wins a second term in November, he will be approaching 75 at the time of the inauguration next January. 

Dr Arash Bereliani from Beverly Hills Institute For Cardiology & Preventive Medicine slammed in a blog the certification that Trump is in great shape. Contradicting Jackson’s take, he said Trump has a mild heart disease. He wrote: “I have a hard time calling a borderline obese man with significant plaque build up in the heart arteries with high cholesterol and possible inflammation someone in "excellent shape".

Two other important thoughts: "The cardiovascular testing done on Mr. Trump was very simplistic and basic. Many other risk factors for future heart attack and heart disease were not tested (i.e, Lp(a). We now have the technology to assess one's risk of a heart attack a lot more accurately than what was done for our president.
His treatment plan is not complete. He needs to be on a more comprehensive treatment plan than simply taking a statin (cholesterol medication) and an Aspirin.” 

Trump said he has a ‘gorgeous chest’

It was reported that Trump might have had a heart attack that prompted him to rush to Walter Reed last year but the president was aghast. He targeted the media coverage over the speculation and said he has a “gorgeous chest”. He even said the press posed a threat to the country by publishing such reports and doubled down on his “gorgeous chest” claim later by tweeting a photo-shopped image of his face superimposed on what appeared to be the chiseled body of Rocky Balboa, a fictional boxer.

On Tuesday, September 1, Trump hit back at the critics over the speculation of having "mini strokes", tweeting: "It never ends! Now they are trying to say that your favorite President, me, went to Walter Reed Medical Center, having suffered a series of mini-strokes. Never happened to THIS candidate - FAKE NEWS. Perhaps they are referring to another candidate from another Party!"

Trump’s coronavirus remedy adventure

In May, Trump announced in public that he was taking hydroxychloroquine regularly as a preventive measure against the Covid-19 pandemic after consulting the White House doctor but faced a backlash from opponents and even journalists from his favorite Fox News since there was no scientific confirmation that the drug is an effective remedy for the disease. The president though tested negative for coronavirus for more than one occasion.

West Point ramp walk

On the eve of turning 74 in June, concerns over Trump’s health came to the fore on two occasions. Videos surfaced showing walking carefully down a ramp and using both hands to hold a water glass while drinking during a speech. While the president was seen using his left hand underneath the glass to bring it closer to his lips. He later blamed a “very slippery ramp” for his unsteady descent at West Point after addressing graduating cadets. While questions came thick and fast over the president’s wobbly appearance, he downplayed it saying he was just being careful so that the media did not make fun of him had he fallen. 

Those who have seen Trump’s speeches in recent years have also raised suspicion about his fitness. In November 2017, the president was seen using his hand to make a small bottle steady as he brought it to his mouth. People mocked at him on that occasion, including his 2016 GOP presidential opponent Marco Rubio, but many found it awkward.

In the very next month, there was yet another uncomfortable moment involving Trump. As he was speaking about his national-security plan in Washington DC, the president reached for a glass under the podium with both hands. He kept them on the glass while he drank and this again raised a question over the man’s neurological health. Trump was also found to deliver a not-so-prominent speech.

Slurred speech

Trump was also found to deliver a not-so-proper speech at the White House in December 2017 while announcing the relocation of the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He slurred his speech and mispronounced some words toward the end of his announcement which he did by opening up each hand at a time.