Trump says he ‘did very well’ in annual physical
The US president praised his own heart, soul and cognitive ability after the test on Friday.
President Donald Trump declared, “I did very well” after undergoing an annual physical on Friday.
He praised his own heart, soul and cognitive ability while saying medical reports from White House doctors may not be ready until later in the weekend.
The 78-year-old, who in January became the oldest in US history to be sworn in as president, spent nearly five hours at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre undergoing what he called “every test you can imagine”.
“I was there for a long time,” he said. “I think I did very well.”
Despite long questioning predecessor Joe Biden’s physical and mental capacity, Mr Trump has routinely kept basic facts about his own health shrouded in secrecy, shying away from traditional presidential transparency on medical issues.
He said he believes the doctor’s report on his latest physical would be ready on Sunday. Although, if history is any indication, that may offer little more than flattery with scarce detail.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said while Mr Trump was still being examined that a “readout from the White House physician” on his health would be released “as soon as we possibly can” and suggested it would be comprehensive.
Mr Trump went straight from the examination to Air Force One to fly to Florida for the weekend.
Speaking to reporters midflight, he said doctors offered him “a little bit” of advice on lifestyle changes that could improve his health, although he did not elaborate on what that was.
“Overall, I felt I was in very good shape. A good heart, a good soul, a very good soul,” Mr Trump said, adding that he took a cognitive test.
“I don’t know what to tell you other than I got every answer right.”
He said undergoing mental acuity screening was “what the American people want” and took another shot at his predecessor, saying: “Biden refused to take it.”
The finished medical report would be the first public information on Mr Trump’s health since an assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
Rather than release medical records at that time, Texas Representative Ronny Jackson — a staunch supporter who served as his White House physician and once joked in the White House briefing room that Mr Trump could live to be 200 if he had a healthier diet — wrote a memo describing a gunshot wound to the then candidates’s right ear.
In a subsequent interview with CBS, Mr Trump said he would “very gladly” release his medical records, but never did.
Presidents have privacy rights protecting their medical records just like ordinary citizens, and that means they have leeway over what details are released. Modern annual physicals, though, have often played key roles in offering the public a sense of the commander-in-chief’s health.
Arguably, Mr Trump’s most famous past comments about his own health came during a television interview in July 2020, when he listed off “Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV” while attempting to demonstrate his cognitive abilities.
He said that a collection of those five nouns, or ones like them, stated in order, demonstrated mental fitness and were part of a cognitive test he had aced. The president was asked about that test again on Air Force One on Friday and responded: “It’s a pretty well-known test.”
“Whatever it is, I got every one — I got it all right,” he said.
