President Donald Trump will visit Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for the third time in just over a year as he struggles to hide a litany of health issues.
The president, who turns 80 in less than three weeks, has looked increasingly unhealthy during his second term, exhibiting frequent bruises, cankles, rashes, and questionable mental acuity that means freewheeling speeches and angry outbursts are more frequent than ever. He has also taken to falling asleep during high-level meetings, earning the nickname “Dozy Don.”
Tuesday’s visit to the medical center in Bethesda, Maryland—his fourth since retaking office—is under the microscope as a result, with a long list of physicians and other medical professionals sounding the alarm on Trump’s apparently waning powers.
Despite this, the White House regularly brags about the president’s vitality. This “lack of candor” has also raised suspicion.
“This White House just doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge any physical ailment, but older people develop medical issues, and the president is almost 80 years old,” leading cardiologist Jonathan Reiner told The Washington Post on Monday. “There just seems to be a lack of candor from the White House.”
In a separate interview with CNN, Reiner raised concerns about Trump appearing to fall asleep during Memorial Day commemorations on Monday, when the president was seen with his eyes closed for an extended time.
“The president has severe daytime somnolence. He falls asleep very often,” Reiner said.
“He’s fallen asleep in the Oval Office on multiple occasions with people talking to him in the Cabinet room, and I was concerned yesterday that he might have fallen asleep at Arlington National Cemetery during Memorial Day observances.
“Chronic insomnia is a severe illness. It can result in an increase in risk of dementia, decrease in cognitive effects in older people.”
In July, the White House was forced to confront the obvious after Trump paraded his bulbous ankles at several engagements. They were noticeable as he hosted dignitaries in the Oval Office, and as he sheepishly descended the stairs of Air Force One.
Officials admitted that Trump suffers from chronic venous insufficiency. Simply put, this is an issue where the veins in your legs struggle to return blood to your heart, leading to swelling.
Reiner, a professor of medicine and the director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at the George Washington University Hospital, and also cardiologist to the late former Vice President Dick Cheney, noted that this condition is long-term, but it was not mentioned in a report following Trump’s last two visits to Walter Reed, in April and October last year. Trump initially said the latter was for an MRI, but it was later revealed to be for a CT scan.
Reiner said that if the condition developed after the April report, then it could signify a condition called acute edema, which “usually warrants an in-depth evaluation to make sure that you don’t have conditions like congestive heart failure.”
Away from his cankles, Trump has plenty of other things to worry about. His right hand, and later his left, have often featured a deep purple bruise, usually covered in a healthy dose of foundation. The White House has claimed this is due to excessive handshaking. Trump himself has blamed his high dosage of aspirin. Reiner doesn’t think either excuse holds much weight.
“If you’re taking too much aspirin, one would likely take less aspirin. So that explanation doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. “We’ve seen a similar bruise from time to time on his left hand, and I doubt he’s shaking hands with his left hand,” he said.
One does not need to be a medical professional to notice what is potentially a telltale sign of some mental issue: Trump’s communication style. He often rambles, loses track of what he’s saying, has random outbursts, and is prone to anger. Professionals have noted that these traits could point to an issue such as Alzheimer’s, which his father suffered from.
Whilst diagnosing such a condition from a distance is difficult, top medics have decided the potential is too much to ignore. In an April 30 report, published in the British Medical Journal, medical experts David Nicholl and Trish Greenhalgh explored the topic. The Journal’s editor in chief, Kamran Abbasi, also a physician, asked an important question.
“How many current leaders with their finger on the button of a nuclear arsenal would we subjectively consider to be rational? When society becomes concerned about a leader’s fitness to rule, as is true of Trump, how do we proceed?”
Polls suggest that Americans have lost faith in Trump’s fitness to lead. A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted in April found just 40 percent of Americans thought he had good enough mental health to be an effective president, while just 44 percent thought he had sufficient physical health.
Those numbers were down from 47 percent and 54 percent in September, respectively. “Anybody who has eyes, ears, and a brain... and hasn’t drunk the Kool-Aid or been bitten by a MAGA zombie, can see for themselves that this person is transparently mentally ill and cognitively deteriorating,” Dr. John Gartner, a former Johns Hopkins University professor, told The Daily Beast Podcast last week.
Trump, however, disagrees. He likes to brag that he regularly aces cognitive tests. Speaking earlier this month at the White House Small Business Summit, the president said he had taken the Montreal Cognitive Assessment three times and “aced each one,” claiming a doctor told him it was the first time they had seen a perfect score.
He walked through the early questions with characteristic confidence. “The first question is very easy,” he crowed. “You have a lion, a bear, an alligator, and a, what’s another good..? A squirrel. Which is the squirrel?” He then insisted the difficulty ramps up considerably. “By the time you get to the middle, they’re very tough.”
However, the test’s creator, Canadian neurologist Ziad Nasreddine, later blew up Trump’s claims to brilliance. “It wasn’t designed to be a test of IQ,” he told nine.com.au. “It was designed to assess normal cognitive performance.”
His first visit to Walter Reed took place shortly after he returned to office last year, with White House physician Sean Barbabella reporting he was in “excellent cognitive and physical health.”
Dr. Ronny Jackson went further during Trump’s first term, saying he thinks Trump could “live to 200” years old.
The Daily Beast has asked the White House for an update ahead of his fourth visit to the famed medical institution.
