On Tuesday, the White House physician, Dr. Ronny Johnson, announced that Trump was in “excellent health.”
But yesterday, CNN medical pundit Dr. Sanjay Gupta–who has never examined Trump–claimed that Trump has heart disease.
“When you look at the findings you just put up there, Alisyn — this coronary calcium score is a score a lot of cardiologists use to try and be predictive and be proactive,” Gupta said.
“And if the number gets up over a hundred, that is concerning to a lot of doctors. It’s concerning because you start to say if you do nothing different, if things don’t change, you can start to predict the likelihood that some sort of heart event, some sort of cardiac event — a heart attack or something like that — within a certain number of years.”
“And you see the trajectory of President Trump’s numbers — no doubt, and I think Dr. Jackson alluded to this because of his diet and because of his lack of exercise, that would be part of the reason those numbers have likely gone up,” Gupta continued. “And they have continued to go up despite the fact that he’s been on medication.”
“So the president has heart disease,” he added. “Those numbers qualify him for having heart disease. And it clearly needs a plan to prevent some kind of heart problem down the road.”
Jackson–who was tapped to be the White House doctor by President Obama in 2013, and continued on to serve President Trump–did say he was going to recommend a dietician work White House chefs to create healthier meals for the McDonalds-loving President, and said that he and First Lady Melania Trump were planning to put together an exercise program in the White House gymnasium.
But nothing about Jackson’s findings suggest heart disease, as Gupta suggests. In fact, Jackson went out of his way to specifically draw attention to President’s healthy heart.
“One thing that really stands out to me is his cardiac health,” he said, citing the President’s lifelong avoidance of alcohol and tobacco. Jackson also added that Trump’s blood pressure and heart rate is completely normal.
