What you need to know
President Donald Trump’s latest major interview about his health began with an ominous warning from the president himself to New York magazine’s Ben Tellis.
“I don’t want to waste a lot of time on this, but if you’re going to write a bad article about my health, I’m going to sue you from New York Magazine,” he said. “Maybe in two years, three years, five years, maybe five years from now, there will be a time when you can write that story. Maybe no one will care. Now sit down.”
A year after Trump returned to the Oval Office for a second term, speculation about his health has been rampant. From swollen ankles, an obvious symptom of chronic venous insufficiency, to advanced imaging tests he knew little about, to near-constant bruising on the backs of his hands, online sleuths have speculated almost constantly about the possibility of a stroke or cognitive decline, but doctors insist he is in good health.
There is a family history of cognitive decline. Trump’s father, real estate developer Frederick “Fred” Trump, lived to be 93 years old, but suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in his later years.
Dennis Caruso/NY Daily News Archive (via Getty)
“He had one problem,” Trump, 79, said of his father in an interview. “At a certain age, like 86, 87, what does he call it?”
Mr. Tellis wrote that Mr. Trump pointed to his head and urged press secretary Caroline Leavitt.
“Alzheimer’s disease,” Levitt said.
“It’s like Alzheimer’s disease,” Trump agreed. “Well, I don’t have it…I don’t think about it at all. You know why? Because whatever it is, whatever my attitude is.”
“Genetically, I’m in very good shape,” he added. “My mother and her family lived long into their 90s. There was no heart disease in my family. None of this, none of that.”
“I have a friend whose mother died of a heart attack at age 49. His father died of a heart attack at age 51. He’s 60 now. I said, ‘You’re done,'” Trump added. “He’s careful about everything he eats. But you can’t beat genetics.”
President Trump has boasted that he openly gives interviews about his health, citing President Joe Biden and saying, “I don’t want someone like my predecessor to come.” However, when he addressed two White House doctors who had been summoned to the Oval Office for interviews, he focused on another Democratic rival. Attending physician Sean Barbabella and physician assistant Col. James Jones, a Ph.D. in the field of health sciences.
Levitt said that because Jones worked in the White House during the Obama administration, Tellis asked him whether Trump or Obama was healthier. Obama was 55 years old when he left office and was famous for his strict diet, but the current president is said to be eating “McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza, and Diet Coke.”
“Mr. Trump looked across the desk and made eye contact with Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones did not hesitate: ‘President Trump,'” Mr. Tellis wrote of Mr. Jones’ reaction. “Mr. Trump nodded. There was no sign of a smile, as if there was no other answer to the question. ‘Write that,’ he said.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Tellis returned to other common Trumpisms about his health, including that the daily dose of aspirin is 325 milligrams, compared to the commonly recommended daily dose of 81 milligrams for heart health.
“I want to thin my blood,” Trump said, noting that he has gained about 11 pounds since his medical exam in April. “It’s really thin blood.”
Doctors have raised concerns about the high doses in the past, but President Trump isn’t listening.
“I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I wouldn’t change it,” he said. “You know what? You’re in the Oval Office right now, right? I wouldn’t change a thing.”
He brushed aside other concerns about aging, saying, “I feel the same as I did 40 years ago.”
Regarding rumors of him nodding off during meetings, President Trump has been candid about not dozing off, saying he had no interest in hearing updates from his top advisers during recent Cabinet meetings.
“It’s so boring,” he said. “I’m going around the room and there’s 28 guys. The last meeting took three and a half hours. I have to sit and listen. And I move my hands to let people know I’m listening. I’m hearing every word. And I can’t wait to get out.”
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President Trump and other members of his administration reiterated a common sentiment that despite our advanced age, we don’t need regular sleep.
“I think five hours is plenty,” he said. “I find that when I’m really having fun, I sleep less.”
Levitt agreed, adding: “He’s working harder now than he ever has in his life, even in real estate when he was on top of the world in New York.”
“The Marine guard standing outside the Oval Office has required more personnel and had to train more Marines because the president is often in the Oval Office,” she noted. “They’ve never had to do that before.”
