The official White House account of the president’s visit to a medical clinic on Friday surprised MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes.
“The fact is, Donald Trump did have his annual physical. That was in April,” the network anchor noted, citing a statement from spokeswoman Carolyn Leavitt earlier this week, which stated that Trump would be traveling to Walter Reed Medical Center for a planned meeting and speech to troops, and that “President Trump would be going there for his routine annual physical.”
Routine annual physicals, as the name suggests, only occur once a year. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump reframed his visit as “a semi-annual physical, which I do,” adding, “I think I’m in excellent physical shape, but I’ll keep you posted.”
A White House update on Trump’s physical, released Friday, indicated that he “continues to demonstrate excellent overall health” and that his “cardiac age” was “approximately 14 years younger than his chronological age.” Meanwhile, his April physical showed he was “fully fit for duty,” standing 6 feet 1 inches tall and weighing 220 pounds, roughly the weight of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Hayes noted.
Hayes added that the 79-year-old president’s claims to be nearly as fit as a 30-year-old NFL star suggest his time in office has had the opposite effect on his predecessors Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama, who looked noticeably older after eight years in office.
Considering this possibility, the MSNBC anchor was unconvinced. “After nine months, I have to say this guy doesn’t look good,” Hayes said Friday. “He has a recurring bruise on his hand that he always tries to hide with makeup, and he has significant swelling in his ankles, which the White House attributes to a condition very common in older people.”
The bruises on Trump’s hands, which Make America Great Again advisers attribute to his use of aspirin to reduce the risk of heart disease, as well as the swelling in his ankles, caused by a chronic venous disease common in people his age, according to White House doctors, have been the subject of intense speculation in recent months.
In early August, his four-day disappearance sparked online rumors that the nearly 80-year-old leader was dead.
“But it’s more than that,” Hayes said of Trump’s apparent physical problems. “Mentally, he seems unwell.” He constantly wanders off in meetings, is unable to properly understand reporters’ questions, and rambles more than he did during his first term.
Critics have noted that the president, who repeatedly criticized Joe Biden for signs of cognitive decline during his campaign last year, has appeared increasingly disoriented in public appearances since taking office for a second term in January.
His recent gaffes include repeated claims to have brokered peace between Albania and Azerbaijan, two countries about 3,200 kilometers apart that have never been at war, and the posting of AI-generated content touting “med beds,” a bogus cure for physical ailments long touted by conspiracy theorists.
