Donald Trump did not have ‘chest pain’, nor did he undergo ‘specialized cardiac or neurologic evaluations’ during his unscheduled weekend visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, according to a memo from the president’s physician released by the White House on Monday.
Trump went to Walter Reed ‘for a routine, planned interim checkup’, wrote Navy Commander Sean Conley in the memo released amid speculation over the commander-in-chief’s health.
Conley says Trump ‘has not had any chest pain, nor was he evaluated or treated for any urgent or acute issues’.
US Navy Commander Sean Conley (pictured), physician to President Donald Trump said the commander-in-chief did not have any ‘chest pain’, nor did he undergo ‘specialized cardiac or neurologic evaluations’ during his unscheduled hospital visit this weekend
Trump went to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center ‘for a routine, planned interim checkup’, wrote Conley in a memo released by the White House on Monday
Conley says Trump ‘has not had any chest pain, nor was he evaluated or treated for any urgent or acute issues’, in the White House memo (pictured)
Speculation over the president’s health began after Trump, 73, showed up at the Bethesda, Maryland, medical center which treats military personnel, as well as presidents and their families, on Saturday.
The visit was unusual, since it was unscheduled and unannounced. Sources told CNN that Trump’s going to Walter Reed was ‘abnormal’ and did not follow the protocol of a routine presidential medical exam.
Then came a tweet from Andrew Vernon, who claims on Twitter that he is ‘President and CEO. Opinion Contributor ‘thehill’.
Vernon wrote in a post Saturday night, ‘#BreakingNews Sources tell me from Walter Reed the President was being checked out for chest discomfort. No other information is available at this time’.
Few news outlets reported on the unsubstantiated tweet.
The President’s doctor adds that Trump ‘did not undergo any specialized cardiac or neurologic evaluations’. The physician provided few specifics, but did note Trump´s total cholesterol was 165 milligrams per deciliter – considered a desirable level.
A tweet (pictured) from Andrew Vernon, who claims on Twitter that he is ‘President and CEO. Opinion Contributor ‘thehill’ said Saturday, ‘#BreakingNews Sources tell me from Walter Reed the President was being checked out for chest discomfort’
The visit to the Bethesda, Maryland, medical center (pictured) was unusual, since it was unscheduled and unannounced. Sources say that Trump’s going to Walter Reed was ‘abnormal’ and did not follow the protocol of a routine presidential medical exam
However, there was additional speculation.
Other social media posts hinted at a conspiracy theory that Trump would become suddenly ill if he had to surrender his tax returns to Congress.
An appellate court last week ruled the president had to give up eight years of returns to congressional lawmakers looking into his businesses and wealth.
Trump’s attorneys in response went to the US Supreme Court to block the release, arguing that Congress was over-stepping its investigative powers.
The court on Monday temporarily put on hold a lower court ruling that would require Trump’s accounting firm to hand over some of his financial records to a Democratic-led House of Representatives committee.
The order issued by Chief Justice John Roberts did not indicate whether the court ultimately plans to hear Trump’s appeal, filed on Friday, of the ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
It puts the litigation on hold while the nine justices decide how to proceed. The hold remains in effect until the court acts.
Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said last week that the last appeals court to act decided the matter wrongly.
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham had made the first initial attempt to quash rumors about the president’s hospital visit.
She explained that Trump decided to make the unscheduled visit to complete some routine checkups as part of his annual physical exam because he had a ‘down day’ on Saturday.
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham had made the first initial attempt to quash rumors about the president’s hospital visit in a tweet (pictured) she made Saturday
‘The President remains healthy and energetic without complaints, as demonstrated by his repeated vigorous rally performances in front of thousands of Americans several times a week’, Grisham added in a released statement.
‘Anticipating a very busy 2020, the President is taking advantage of a free weekend here in Washington, DC, to begin portions of his routine annual physical exam at Walter Reed’, Grisham said a the time.
Trump´s 2018 and 2019 physicals were both announced ahead of time. Grisham said after the visit that the president had gotten ‘a quick exam and labs.’
Despite her early comments, followed by the memo form Conley, there remains those who have their doubts.
‘The one thing you can be absolutely sure of is this was not routine and he didn’t go up there for half his physical,’ tweeted Joe Lockhart, a press secretary under President Bill Clinton, who was himself impeached for perjury and obstruction.
‘What does it mean? It means that we just won’t know what the medical issue was’.
‘The real Donald Trump is getting exposed for what he’s done, and that’s what’s driving him to the doctor,’ Rahm Emanuel, a former Clinton aide and Chicago mayor, said Sunday on ABC´s ‘This Week.’
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said it´s reasonable for the press to be asking questions about the president´s health.
She said the country has a long history of presidents hiding physical ailments from the public.
Woodrow Wilson suffered a paralytic stroke in 1919 and the full details of his disability were kept from the public.
Franklin D. Roosevelt won a fourth term despite severe hypertension that would contribute to his death 11 weeks into his term.
President Trump is pictured leaving the White House on Saturday for an unscheduled and unannounced visit to Walter Reed
A member of the Secret Service HAMMER team takes his position as Trump arrives at Walter Reed on Saturday
Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered a heart attack in his first term, in 1955, and a reassessment of his medical records and public information four decades later found that the information released to the public was recast to serve the president´s political interests ahead of his 1956 reelection campaign.
Jamieson noted that Trump was criticized for releasing only cursory details on his health prior to the election.
The president´s doctor, Harold N. Bornstein, wrote in December 2015 that Trump would ‘unequivocally’ be the healthiest president in history and deemed the celebrity businessman’s condition ‘astonishingly excellent.’
Bornstein later said he wrote the note in five minutes while a limo sent by the candidate waited outside his office.
Jamieson said there is a set of expectations about how a president´s annual exam is handled, which includes the advance public notice that the Trump White House provided for his first two exams. She said the reasonable question is: ‘If this is routine, why was it not handled in a routine manner?’
Grisham said everything the White House has said about the Walter Reed visit is ‘true and accurate.’
‘Just because it was done a little differently doesn´t mean anything is wrong,’ she said.
Trump and the White House have characterized the visit as ‘phase 1’ of his annual physical. But the explanation raised questions simply because its handling was unusual.
Trump, in a tweet early Sunday, shot down rumors that he could be experiencing health issues, and touted that he met with a family whose son was in surgery at the medical center. He adds that he underwent ‘phase one’ of his annual physical, almost like it was an afterthought