Donald Trump In 'Excellent Health,' Doctor Says After Checkup

The White House physician promises to provide more detail on Tuesday.
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Donald Trump is in “excellent health,” said a brief statement from his doctor issued by the White House on Friday following the president’s checkup.

“The president’s exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center went exceptionally well. The president is in excellent health and I look forward to briefing some of the details on Tuesday,” Dr. Ronny Jackson said in the statement.

Trump spent close to three hours with military doctors at Walter Reed in Bethesda, Maryland, before flying to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. It was his first comprehensive physical in office.

Trump, 71, had the exam amid increasing concerns about his mental fitness for office, particularly in the wake of journalist Michael Wolff’s book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, and its revelations about Trump’s volatility and forgetfulness. Trump has insisted, however, that he is a “very stable genius.”

The White House said Trump would not undergo a psychiatric exam. But officials did not say if the exam would include any mental acuity or cognitive tests. Trump’s own Department of Health and Human Services recommends “cognitive impairment” tests for people his age as part of their annual checkups to detect any early signs of dementia.

Yale University psychiatry professor Bandy Lee has been raising the alarm about signs of mental impairment exhibited by the president, including his belief in conspiracy theories, his unfettered tweeting and his frequent denials of things he had admitted in the past.

It’s up to Trump what details about his exam will be released to the public. But the White House has said that Jackson, a rear admiral and the White House physician, will answer questions alongside White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the Tuesday press briefing.

Trump, the oldest person ever elected president, predicted that his physical would “go very well.”

When he was running for office, Trump released a report in 2015 from his personal physician, who said Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” Trump predicted the report would “show perfection.”

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