The only thing of which we can be fairly certain about President Donald Trump's mysterious Saturday-afternoon trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center is this: The White House is not telling the truth when it claims the president was there "to begin portions of his routine annual physical exam."
Who could forget the fables from his personal physician Harold Bornstein, who released a letter in 2015 assuring the nation that an overweight 70-year-old man with a lifetime of bad eating habits and an aversion to strenuous exercise would be "the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency"? (Bornstein later said Trump had dictated the letter.)
Then there was the miraculous growth spurt that occurred between the issuing of his driver's license in 2012 and his physical in 2018, which reportedly added an inch to his height. That exam also allowed him to come in exactly 1 pound short of being classified as medically obese at a reported 239 pounds. By 2019, however, Trump had added another four pounds and crossed the line.
So now the oldest president in U.S. history claims the purpose of his two-hour medical visit, which was not on his public schedule, was to conduct "phase one of my yearly physical. Everything very good (great!). Will complete next year."
Phase one? What does that entail? Has anyone else ever taken a routine physical in installments spread out over months? Americans should demand something more than what they are getting, starting with a briefing from the physicians who treated him at Walter Reed.
"Oh, the rumors are always flying," his press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Saturday night on Fox News. "He's as healthy as can be." Could we please have a second opinion on that?
Editorial on 11/19/2019