The White House went ballistic on CNN reporter Kevin Liptak on Tuesday over his report about Donald Trump’s age as the nearly 80-year-old president headed to Walter Reed for his health physical.
Liptak wrote about how the president’s “advanced age and threats to his life serve as reminders of his mortality.”
But the White House hit out, saying that it was the “radical left lunatics” inciting violence against Trump and failed to grasp the larger picture in the report about his aging.
“You’re an idiot, @Kevinliptakcnn‚" the Rapid Response team wrote on X. “The ‘threats to his life serve as reminders’ that Radical Left lunatics — incited by outlets like gutter trash CNN—keep trying to murder him. And @POTUS works harder in one day than you have in your entire life."
The post included a screengrab of the headline and Liptak’s byline. It did not include any of the copy that delved into concerns about the president’s advanced age.
Trump on Tuesday headed to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for his annual physical ahead of his 80th birthday next month.
It is the third time he’s visited the facility for a medical exam since returning to office, during which time he has faced mounting concerns about mental and physical decline.
Liptak wrote that even a glowing write-up from his doctors about his health is unlikely to quiet the questions raised, and noted that even the president, who is the oldest person ever elected to the office, has been addressing his own mortality.
Trump has repeatedly talked about how much longer he would be around in the face of multiple assassination attempts amid an increase in political violence in the U.S.
Last month, a would-be assassin was gunned down before he could enter the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. On Saturday, the Secret Service shot and killed a man brandishing a gun near the White House.
He has also mused about whether he would get into heaven on several occasions, at times jokes about being younger than attendees to his events, and frequently touts his cognitive ability, even though the test he boasts about is used to look for dementia.
But despite the White House’s desperate attempts to downplay even the easily observable health issues, including repeated bruising on his hand and swollen ankles, they have not released in-depth details about his health assessments, leaving the pressing questions largely unanswered.
The last time the president went to Walter Reed for a medical exam was in October, just six months after his first annual physical back in office. The visit sparked a series of new questions after the president claimed he had an MRI during his visit but would not say why. It was clarified months later that he actually received a CT scan.
Meanwhile, his team continues to insist that he’s in excellent health and ignores calls to release more information.
While doctors have blasted the administration’s claims that Trump’s bruised hands are due to excessive handshaking, they’ve also raised concerns over the president repeatedly appearing to fall asleep in public, including at events and inside the Oval Office.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner described it on CNN on Tuesday as “severe daytime somnolence.”
“There was concern yesterday that he might have fallen asleep at Arlington National Cemetery during Memorial Day observances,” he said. “Chronic insomnia is a severe illness. It can result in an increase in risk of dementia, decrease in cognitive effects in older people.”
