A 2015 doctor’s note describing Donald Trump’s health as “astonishingly excellent” was dictated, it turns out, by Trump himself. The Guardian reports that this according to the doctor who signed the note, Dr Harold Bornstein, who described in the letter as Trump’s physician “since 1980”, told interviewers that he did not write the letter, which Trump publicised on the eve of the presidential primary contests to allay concerns about his fitness.
“He dictated that whole letter. I didn’t write that letter,” Bornstein told CNN. “I just made it up as I went along.”
The report says the story is a reversal by Bornstein, who claimed in August 2016 that he had dashed off the letter “in five minutes … while the driver waited for me.”
Bornstein said the long-time Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller and two other men had conducted a “raid” on his offices for Trump’s medical records in February 2017, two days after Bornstein told a newspaper that he had for years prescribed a hair growth medicine for Trump. The raid left him “raped, frightened and sad”, Bornstein is quoted as saying.
Trump produced the 2015 letter from Bornstein in response to media pressure for him to produce medical records. Two days before the letter was released, Trump tweeted: “As a presidential candidate, I have instructed my long-time doctor to issue, within two weeks, a full medical report – it will show perfection.”
Then, Bornstein now claims, Trump dictated the letter to Bornstein, who signed it. The letter said Trump had shed 15lb in the prior 12 months, said “his cardiovascular status is excellent” and concluded: “If elected, Mr Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
The White House has denied that it “raided” the office of Donald Trump’s long-time personal doctor to seize the president’s medical records. The Guardian reports that Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, has defended the move. Asked about Bornstein’s characterisation of it as a “raid”, she replied: “No, that is not my understanding.”
Sanders added: “It would be standard procedure for a newly elected president’s records to be in possession by the White House medical unit. And that was what was taking place, is those records were being transferred over to the White House medical unit as requested.”
[link url="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/01/trump-dictated-doctors-note-harold-bornstein"]The Guardian report[/link]
[link url="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/01/white-house-denies-trumps-personal-doctors-office-was-raided"]The Guardian report[/link]