If he wins next month's election,
Donald Trump would be the oldest person in U.S. history to be elected president. Yet the 78-year-old Republican nominee refuses to disclose new details about his physical or mental well-being, breaking decades of precedent.
That's giving his political adversaries, including Democratic rival
Kamala Harris, an opportunity to raise questions about his age and ability to execute the duties of the presidency into his 80s.
“It makes you wonder: Why does his staff want him to hide away?” Harris asked recently as she needled Trump for withholding medical records, opting against another debate and skipping an interview with CBS' “60 Minutes.” “One must question: Are they afraid that people will see that he is too weak and unstable to lead America? Is that what’s going on?”
“In an era where we’re having ever older individuals running for or being president, it seems to me it should be less acceptable, frankly,” to have such little information, said Dr. Eric Lenze of Washington University in St. Louis, a geriatric psychiatrist who evaluates cognition in older adults.
The last thorough report on Trump's health came in 2019, when he was still president. That checkup classified him as obese with a weight of 243 pounds and a body mass index of 30.4, which raises the risk of heart disease, diabetes and other problems. That report also revealed increased dosages of medication for high cholesterol. While Trump doesn’t drink alcohol or smoke, he has long avoided exercise other than golf and loves fast food.
As for his family history, his father had Alzheimer’s disease late in life, one potential risk factor.
Trump's public appearances are often marked by rambling. He regularly confuses timelines, events and people.
At a town hall-style forum in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Trump seemed to have no recollection of meeting with a severely injured veteran and his family. The veteran’s wife noted that “you visited with him many times” and “you just saw him this summer.”
Trump has also confused Republican rival
Nikki Haley with former Democratic House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi. He confused the location of a major military base. He mistakenly said that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán led Turkey.
During a
meandering news conference riddled with
false and misleading statements in August, Trump recalled riding as a passenger in the chopper with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown when it was forced to make an emergency landing.
Brown
later said he had never shared a helicopter with Trump. Instead, it was likely a Los Angeles city councilman, who is also Black, who shared a rocky helicopter ride with Trump decades earlier.
And more recently, at a rally in Wisconsin, he seemed to squint at teleprompters as he lurched from subject to subject. He described the country as a “third-world hellhole.” He then told his audience, “Remember, there’s a hat that’s made that sells like crazy,” before interrupting himself to comment on a fly.
“Oh there’s a fly, I wonder where the fly came from. See, two years ago, I wouldn’t have had a fly up here. You’re changing rapidly,” Trump said.
He has begun boasting about his “beautiful body” and describes his often long-winded speeches as “flawless.”
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