First, the headline reaction, which is from the WSJ: As Signs of Aging Emerge, Trump Responds With Defiance (updated with a gift link–although it still requires registration). As regular readers know, I am not a big “diagnosis from afar” guy, and I also tend to think that a great deal of Trump’s bad behavior is just bad behavior that should not be excused or explained away by age. But, good grief, the man is obviously getting old. He falls asleep on camera on the regular and has been showing signs of being in his late 70s for a while now. “Emerge” is not the right verb. Maybe “As Signs of Aging Intensify” or “As Signs of Aging Deepen” because “emerge” suggests that they are just now surfacing. Whatever I did to my knee a couple of days ago on the golf course could result in a headline that reads “As Signs of Aging Emerge, Taylor Responds With Ibuprofen and Less Walking Than Normal.”
Second, here are some details gleaned from sources willing to pay to read the WSJ piece. Via Reuters: Trump tells WSJ he is taking more aspirin than doctors recommend.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that he is taking a larger daily dose of aspirin than his doctors recommend.
“They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart,” Trump told the paper in an interview published on Thursday. “I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?”
It makes sense insofar as that seems to be how he makes most decisions: take a semi-understood bit of information and then extrapolate out a ridiculous conclusion that ignores expertise. It certainly tracks with his economic and foreign policy choices.
Regarding the MRI, Trump said the following in a small, ungated portion of the WSJ piece:
“In retrospect, it’s too bad I took it because it gave them a little ammunition,” Trump said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on his decision to get a cardiovascular and abdominal scan in October. “I would have been a lot better off if they didn’t, because the fact that I took it said, ‘Oh gee, is something wrong?’ Well, nothing’s wrong.”
Reuters clarifies:
When asked about the MRI, Trump and Barbabella told the Journal that the president actually got a CT scan.
Barbabella said Trump’s doctors had initially said they would perform either an MRI or a CT scan but decided to do the latter “to definitively rule out any cardiovascular issues.”
It revealed no abnormalities, according to Barbabella.
Why Trump couldn’t just report out the tests and instead said he didn’t even know why they did them is beyond me. No one of any consequence would have been especially surprised that an elderly man had medical tests. It is, you know, kind of a known thing at that age.
BTW, he isn’t dozing off in meetings, he’s just blinking! (You know, very, very slowly).
Update:
That’ll keep that blood thin!
