President Donald Trump is in “excellent” health and has “absolutely no cognitive or mental issues whatsoever,” but would benefit from losing weight, the White House physician said Tuesday.
Trump, who is 71, had his first physical with Dr. Ronny Jackson on Friday amid ongoing concern about his mental fitness. Jackson reported the clean bill of health during a long press conference, saying the results from the president’s cognitive abilities test were “normal” and that he is “very sharp.”
“I feel very confident that he has a very strong and a very probable possibility of making it completely through his presidency with no medical issues,” Jackson said.
He said that Trump scored a perfect 30 out of 30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which is designed to detect Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment (but is not equivalent to a psychological examination). Jackson noted that Trump personally requested the mental examination himself.
Regarding his physical health, Jackson said the president has an “above average” capacity for exercise for someone his age as well as “energy” and “stamina.” The president weighs 239 pounds—just one pound away from being considered “obese” on the body mass index—and is taking medications to lower his cholesterol and to prevent hair loss, the doctor said.
Jackson recommended a “diet that is lower and fat and carbohydrates” and more exercise for the president, who reportedly eats McDonald’s and drinks Diet Coke regularly (but offsets his massive McDonald’s order by not eating the buns).
“Some people have great genes. I told the president that if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years, he might live to be 200 years old,” Jackson said. “He has incredible genes, I just assume.”
Reporters pressed him on Trump’s mental health, but Jackson didn’t have an explanation for Trump’s erratic tweeting habits.
“Twitter doesn’t involve me as a doctor,” he said.
Speculation about Trump’s mental fitness has been a staple of his presidency, but events in the past month brought the issue to the fore. In response to Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury, which alleged that White House staffers had questioned Trump’s mental stability, Trump insisted he is a “stable genius” and called Wolff “mentally deranged.“
Earlier this month, Yale psychiatry professor Dr. Bandy X. Lee told members of Congress that Trump’s mental health appears to be declining.
“He’s going to unravel, and we are seeing the signs,” Lee said.
