Trump renews attacks on Biden’s health to distract from his own lack of transparency

This is an adapted excerpt from the Sept. 6 episode of “Velshi.”

There’s been a lot of speculation about the president of the United States, his health and his fitness to run the country: swollen legs, bruised hand and a dayslong disappearance from the public eye.

There is an explanation for some of this, but Donald Trump’s administration isn’t exactly known for transparency. So, many people have been led to draw their own conclusions and assume that the badly blended, wrong shade of makeup on Trump’s hand isn’t the only cover-up happening right now.

I’m not a doctor and I don’t play one on TV, so I won’t attempt to diagnose the president, but it appears most of this speculation around Trump’s health could be easily cleared up by the administration. Instead, it’s doing what it does best: dipping, dodging and dragging out the intrigue.

Let’s just go through the timeline: A large bruise was first spotted on the president’s right hand back in February. Since then, the bruise has appeared on and off; sometimes it’s covered in what appears to be makeup, other times it’s not.

On July 13, Trump, photographed at a soccer game, appeared to have swollen ankles. On July 17, the president’s doctor, Sean Barbabella, released a statement to say Trump had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, which means the veins in the legs can’t properly carry blood back to the heart, causing it to pool in the lower legs. It’s a fairly common condition for older adults.

Barbabella said other tests were done and they all came back normal. He added that the president was taking aspirin as part of a “standard cardiovascular prevention regimen,” which is also pretty common in older adults, and “remains in excellent health.”

The chronic venous insufficiency explains Trump’s swollen ankles, but that condition only affects the lower body, so it does not explain his bruised hand. But his doctor — and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt — had an answer for that. According to Leavitt, Trump’s bruised hands were “consistent with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin.”

It’s worth noting that Trump is a self-described “germaphobe,” “germ freak” and “clean-hands freak.” Over the years, he’s called the practice of shaking hands “barbaric,” “disgusting,” “very, very terrible” and “one of the curses of American society.”

But let’s go with that and say a few really stiff handshakes combined with the use of aspirin caused the bruising on Trump’s right hand. Well, recently, The Daily Beast spotted what appears to be a bruise on Trump’s left hand. So is the germaphobe-in-chief now shaking hands with both hands?

To add to the speculation, Trump, who rarely goes a few hours without getting in front of a camera, was MIA for six days. We didn’t hear a peep from the president outside of a social media post on Sunday when he declared that he’s “never felt better in his life.” The president then emerged on Tuesday for an announcement in the Oval Office, which doubled as “proof of life” evidence.

During that announcement, Trump acknowledged the rumors surrounding his health and quickly shifted the conversation to his former opponent, Joe Biden. “We know he wasn’t in the greatest shape,” Trump said.

Let’s just acknowledge the irony here because, a little over a year ago, in the lead-up to the 2024 election, it was Biden who was being bombarded with questions about his age and health. And no one was more concerned about the age and health of the then-president than Trump. He was the leader of the “Biden’s Unfit Club.”

But at least Biden’s yearly physical exams were always pretty detailed. They included the good and the not-so-good. Going back to 2019, when Biden was campaigning for the 2020 election, his doctor released a summary of his medical history. It said that Biden was a “healthy, vigorous, 77-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency.”

It went on to say that Biden was being treated for four different conditions: non-valvular atrial fibrillation, or A-fib, which is a type of irregular heart rhythm; hyperlipidemia, which is higher concentrations of fats or lipids in the blood; gastro-esophageal reflux; and seasonal allergies.

The summary also noted when and how Biden’s A-fib was discovered and that he had several nonmelanoma skin growths removed.

Biden’s annual presidential physical exams went like this every year: detailed, honest, transparent.

Trump’s health reports, on the other hand, are a whole different story.

In 2015, when he was campaigning the first time, his longtime doctor, Harold Bornstein, released a statement that Trump’s recent medical exam produced “only positive results.” Trump’s doctor said his blood pressure and lab results were “astonishingly excellent” and “his physical strength and stamina is extraordinary.”

That report did mention a daily use of aspirin and a low dose of a cholesterol-lowering drug.

But here’s the kicker: Bornstein said that, “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”

The language in that letter sounds awfully familiar, written in true Trumpian hyperbole, boasting of his vitality. Well, three years later, Bornstein admitted that Trump dictated the entire letter. The doctor said he only advised Trump “what he couldn’t put in there.”

The shadiness around Trump’s health continued. NBC News reported that in 2019, during a surprise trip to Walter Reed Medical Center, Trump made personnel sign nondisclosure agreements before they could be involved in treating him. He initially declined to talk about the reason for the visit, which was later revealed to be a routine colonoscopy.

Now, amid recent speculation about the president's health, the White House is turning to a familiar face: disgraced former doctor Ronny Jackson — the same Ronny Jackson who said that, with the right diet, Trump could live to be 200 years old.

Jackson, now a MAGA loyalist in the House of Representatives, was Trump’s former White House physician. During his first term, Trump tried to nominate Jackson to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs, but he was forced to withdraw his nomination following a host of allegations, including that he handed out prescription drugs “like candy,” earning him the moniker “Candyman” and that he drank on the job as White House physician. (Jackson has denied these allegations.)

Jackson also cannot legally practice medicine outside of emergency situations because he let his full medical license expire in Virginia, where he practiced.

But when The Daily Beast asked the administration for a comment on Trump’s health, the White House sent a statement from Jackson, who said, “As President Trump’s former personal physician, former Physician to the President, and White House physician for 14 years across three administrations, I can tell you unequivocally: President Donald J. Trump is the healthiest president this nation has ever seen.”

Jackson said he still consults with Trump’s current physicians and still spends “significant time” with the president. “He is mentally and physically sharper than ever before,” Jackson claimed.

Recently, Vice President JD Vance (also not a doctor) weighed in on the controversy. While Vance said Trump was in “incredibly good health,” he made sure to note that if “God forbid, there’s a tragedy,” he couldn’t “think of better on-the-job training than what [he’s] got in the last 200 days.”

Something tells me Vance may have gotten called into the Oval after that one.

But you know what they say: An apple a day, keeps the conspiracies away.