Dr Ronny Jackson, U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House physician, has declared the president to be in “excellent health”.
“The examination went exceptionally well. The President is in excellent health and I look forward to briefing some of the details on Tuesday,” Jackson said in a statement released by the White House.
Jackson’s declaration came after Trump received his first medical check-up at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland, on Friday.
Trump’s mental state has become an issue of concern recently following revelations in a recent book: “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House”, written by Michael Wolff.
The book, which has sparked sharp criticisms among Trump’s opponents and the White House, suggested that the U.S. president was mentally unfit and also heavily criticised the Trump’s presidency.
Trump spent about three hours at the medical facility in Maryland for the check-up, his first as president.
The president, however, declared himself as “a very stable genius”, pushing back hard against any suggestion that he was mentally unfit.
The examination lasted several hours and measured things like Trump’s blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, heart rate and weight.
The White House did not, however, provide specific results of those tests.
Jackson, who also provided care for President Barack Obama and became a White House physician in 2006, is expected to provide a detailed readout of the exam on Tuesday and answer questions from reporters.
But conclusions about Trump’s mental alertness were not expected as the White House said Trump would not undergo a psychiatric examination.
Bornstein had said in a December 2015 letter: “If elected, Mr Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
In September 2016, two months before the November 2016 presidential election, Trump released a five-paragraph letter from his long-time physician, Dr Harold Bornstein, who concluded that Trump “is in excellent physical health”.
The letter put Trump’s blood pressure and cholesterol measurements in the healthy range, while his electrocardiogram, chest X-ray, echocardiogram and blood sugar were normal.
The doctor’s 2016 letter stated that Trump’s testosterone level, 441.6, was in the normal range, as were his Prostate-specific antigen reading for prostate abnormalities and tests of his liver and thyroid.
Trump was 70 when he took office on Jan. 20, 2017, making him the oldest person ever elected to the nation’s highest office. (NAN)
