(AFP) – US President Donald Trump said Monday that he will undergo his “long scheduled Annual Physical Examination” on Friday at a military hospital near Washington. “I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Trump, 78, is a prolific golfer who abstains from alcohol and cigarettes, but he is known to indulge in fast food and famously enjoys his steaks well-done. His earlier physical exams at Walter Reed Medical Center raised questions about the specifics of his health data and about the transparency of results. A physical during his first term, in 2018, suggested the president should aim to lose 10 to 15 pounds but was generally in “excellent health.” His doctor said there were no signs of “any cognitive issues,” and that with a healthier diet, he could “live to be 200 years old.”
A year later, an exam found the 6-foot-3 (1.9 meter) Trump weighed 243 pounds (110 kilograms), up seven pounds since shortly before taking office, making him technically obese. It said he was taking medication to treat high cholesterol. In 2020, he told Fox News that he aced a test for cognitive impairment by repeating the phrase “person, woman, man, camera, TV.”
During Trump’s presidential campaign in 2015, his doctor, Harold Bornstein, released a letter saying the candidate’s blood pressure was “astonishingly excellent” and that if elected, “Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” Bornstein later told CNN that Trump himself “dictated that whole letter. I didn’t write that letter.”
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