It's All Going to Health

Yesterday was a Daily Double in Trump Health World.

First, there was Robert Kennedy Jr., the man who is almost single-handedly destroying the U.S. healthcare system, posting, for some unknown reasons, ​a bizarre video of himself in a backyard patio capturing two snakes -- who kept wriggling until they bit him.  I'm not sure which showed worse judgement:  him picking  up the two snakes or thinking it was a great idea for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to post such a ludicrous video.

And then later, Trump posted on social media an enthusiastic note that he’d just had a “Perfect” medical exam. 

My reply online was pretty simple.  That this was improbable. 

And it was improbable to a layman just based on what anyone can look at and see.  Let alone read.  Even if you start and end with the reality that Trump will be 80 years old in just a couple of weeks, that’s enough to know his health isn’t “Perfect”.  Indeed, I suspect it’s near-impossible that anyone who is 80 had “Perfect” health. 

Then add that we’ve seen disturbing bruising on his hands, and seen swollen ankles, and see that he is significantly overweight (if not "morbidly obese") and seen him falling asleep regularly during public events.  Not to mention hearing him getting names and dates and facts mixed up and going off on tangents in his speeches.  And then add all the articles from expert psychologists that he has dementia and malignant narcissism, both medical terms. 

None of this is “Perfect”.  Or comes within touching distance of "Perfect."  And that’s just the basics, without knowing much of anything.  That's only a few steps beyond the level of a six-year-old child seeing Trump, pointing and saying, "Look at that man, mamma, he looks like he..."  [Fill in the blank.]  Imagine being a doctor who actually understands medicine and health care and what to look for.

Normally, of course, a person's health is really none of our business.  But when someone is president of the United States and commander-in-chief during a war, that's another matter entirely.  It's critical for people to know. 

That’s why I like to hear what professionals say who do understand all that.  Which brings us to Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, who is a former White House physician, and was a guest on CNN yesterday. 

After the medical visit Trump had, the physicians publicly list the results of the exam, including medication being taken and tests given.  To the general public, all that means nothing, just a lot of words.  To doctors, it means everything.

"One of the things that has concerned me about the White House physician, both the current one and under the previous president, is that sometimes they list some medications that the president is taking, but not all of them," Kuhlman said. "Another one is that sometimes they don't give tests to the president, perhaps because they don't want the results to be known." 

From the what was provided to the public, though, Dr. Kuhlman notes very politely, “the information, if we say it nicely, is incomplete.” 

We on the outside wouldn’t have a clue what was missing.  But to a physician, it’s blaring. 

"What they should address to an 80-year-old are the big three. Advanced age is the number one risk factor for cardiovascular disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease. So for an 80-year-old, it is not acceptable to say, 'Here's a blood pressure; here's an EKG.' They should be assessing his cardiac function." 

Dr. Kuhlman goes further and explains in detail how such an exam should be conducted and described to the public for an 80-year-old who is head of the country. 

"They should do objective testing like a treadmill, like a stress test," he said. "Cardiac imaging of the heart, the coronary arteries, the calcium score ultrasound of the valves, and not just say 'normal,' but they should say, 'Here's the ejection fraction, here's the function of the four valves. And they are not even listing the different tests that he's had." 

And that’s the point.  Dr. Kuhlman isn’t saying that such tests weren’t done.  They might have been, but there’s no way of knowing since none of it is listed.  And not being listed is concerning because, as he suggests, they don’t want to know and therefore didn’t do the tests they’d have to report – or they did the tests and are hiding the results.

Which is hardly the “Perfect” way to handle a medical exam of anyone.  But especially the chief executive and commander-in-chief during a war.

In regards to the importance of the public knowing about the public's health, we saw how critical it was to people when President Biden was running for re-election.  And he wasn't diagnosed with any significant health issues, but dealing with normal issues of age.

CNN pollster Harry Enten noted polling done in 2023 that showed 64 percent of people believed that Trump was in "good enough" health to be president. A current poll however shows only 44 percent still think the same thing.  And again, it's not from any medical tests they're aware of, but just using their eyes.

"That's a tremendous drop," Enten said. "The American people are seeing what they're seeing on their screens. They're passing judgment on this."

Enten goes on to make an interesting point, addressing that unlike President Biden, Trump isn't running for re-election.  But there is a Mid-Term on our doorstep. 

"I think a lot of voters are saying, 'Hey, do we want to continue to give Republicans power who will help, of course, to empower the president of the United States?'" Enten said. "And Trump's numbers on his physical health on starting to look an awful bit like Joe Biden's were going into the 2024 election, and that is not a comparison you want."

Especially when your approval is just 34%.  With soaring gas prices and grocery prices.  And a war you started that almost no one wants.  And you're surrounded by unqualified incompetents who know they are only there to say "Yes" to whatever you want and enable you.

And a party in Congress that seems okay with it all.