If you like your life, if you like yourself, and if you have gobs of money and some luck, maybe you can beat medical odds. It's counterintuitive that Trump might have healthy blood pressure, heart rate, and glucose levels, but it's also counterintuitive that the slender, active, disciplined Barack Obama had borderline high cholesterol, according to his 2014 health assessment. There's a certain moralism that makes us want people's health to match their personal habits, but health doesn't always work that way. Richards is still here. Non-smoker Andy Kaufman died in his thirties of lung cancer.
I don't believe Trump is 6'3" and 239 pounds -- Sports Illustrated's photo comparisons of Trump to athletes reported to be of similar size make a mockery of that claim, as do other photo pairings.
Jay Cutler is 6'3" and 233. Donald Trump is 6'3" and 239. What a difference six pounds makes! pic.twitter.com/ECiWtPVtwn
— Ronald Reagan’s Spinning Corpse (@SpinningRonnie) January 16, 2018
Even Maggie Haberman wasn't buying the numbers.
Reminder that earlier physicals decades ago put Trump height at 6’2”. The 6’3” height makes a difference on his BMI from overweight to obese https://t.co/iHIsJjustT
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 16, 2018
Dr. Ronny Jacksion, the physician who conducted the exam, might be a decent man -- former Obama adviser David Axelrod describes him as a "very good guy and straight shooter" -- but I imagine that you're expected to be at least somewhat politic when you're a White House doctor. Jackson worked in the White House during the presidencies of Obama and George W. Bush, both of whom were younger and thinner than Trump, and both of whom enjoyed exercise. Now, with Trump, Jackson probably has more to be discreet about.
Trump does demand more dishonesty of the people around him than nearly anyone else. But I can also believe that most of what Jackson has told us is more or less accurate. I can believe that the cognitive test Trump took really shows that he's not suffering from dementia or pre-dementia. Many people think Trump is on the verge of full-blown Alzheimer's, but I've always had my doubts -- an alternate explanation is that he's mentally lazy and incurious, that the Diet Cokes rob him of sleep and that the lack of sleep robs him of mental sharpness, and that TV, Twitter, and a lack of reading have damaged his ability to concentrate and analyze. Plus, he's the boss, and he thinks that means he doesn't have to try very hard, because being the boss means you can pay people to work hard and think for you.
In short, Trump could be reasonably healthy, because disease has no morals.
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