President Donald Trump plans to go to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Tuesday for a medical and dental checkup, according to a White House official.
This is the president’s third in-person doctor’s visit in a little over a year. He went to Walter Reed twice last year, in April and October. He also visited his dentist in West Palm Beach twice this year — first in January and then again earlier this month for a follow-up.
Trump, who will turn 80 next month and is the oldest person to assume the presidency, routinely asserts that he is in excellent health, even as rumors about his health circulate. He made his promised vitality and energy a major part of his campaign for re-election, mocking his rival as “Sleepy Joe Biden.”
But moments of apparent drowsiness and a noticeably bruised hand, which the White House has blamed on him shaking hands and taking aspirin as a blood thinner, continue to spark questions.
The president was revealed last year to have chronic venous insufficiency, after he was examined for mild swelling in his legs.
Trump told The Wall Street Journal during an interview published in January that “aspirin is good for thinning out” his blood and he doesn’t want “thick blood pouring through [his] heart.”
His October visit was initially described by the White House as a scheduled follow-up, but Trump later told reporters that he had undergone an MRI. The exam was eventually revealed to be a CT scan of his heart and abdomen.
“President Trump agreed to meet with the staff and soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Hospital in October. In order to make the most of the President’s time at the hospital, we recommended he undergo another routine physical evaluation to ensure continued optimal health,” Dr. Sean Barbabella, the president’s physician, said in a statement to NBC News. “As part of that examination, we asked the President if he would undergo advanced imaging — either an MRI or CT Scan — to definitively rule out any cardiovascular issues. The President agreed, and our team of consultants performed a CT Scan. As we revealed in the post-examination report, the advanced imaging was perfectly normal and revealed absolutely no abnormalities.”
After a visit in April last year to Walter Reed, Barbabella said in a statement that the president “remains in excellent health, exhibiting robust cardiac, pulmonary, neurological and general physical function.”
He continued: “President Trump’s days include participation in multiple meetings, public appearances, press availability, and frequent victories in golf events.”
