This past Saturday, about two in the afternoon, Trump abruptly went to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center with the White House doctor riding along. He was there about two hours before heading back to the White House. His public events for Sunday were suddenly canceled early in the morning, and nothing public was planned for him today.
The Trump administration story is that this was an unscheduled trip to Walter Reed to visit some random military person getting out of surgery, and while he was there for that, Trump just went ahead and got started on “phase one” of his annual physical, including have some lab tests run.
Because that’s a thing people do, sure. Definitely people who are 70+ years old, overweight, mostly sedentary, with a terrible diet, and working one of the most stressful jobs in the world, while being investigated for basically all of the crimes.
- Politico: Trump visits Walter Reed to begin annual physical examination, White House says
- The Guardian: Trump says he’s in ‘very good’ health after unscheduled medical checkup
- NBC News’ Kelly O’Donnell: “POTUS health. WH says Saturday trip to hospital was ‘routine’ & he’s ‘fine’ despite break from past practices. Here is glimpse of Pres Trump and what appears to be WH physician Sean Conley getting into motorcade.”
- Heavy.com: Trump Chest Discomfort Claim After Walter Reed Visit (Andrew Vernon: “Sources tell me from Walter Reed the President was being checked out for chest discomfort. No other information is available at this time.”)
It’s worth noting that the White House is pretty well equipped to handle medical stuff. They don’t have a whole hospital, but they can handle a lot, including basic blood work, in-house.
I’ll also go ahead and remind you that you can’t believe a single frickin’ word Trump or his administration says about anything. These folks lie like they breathe. So they have exactly zero credibility. Actually, scratch that. They’ve lied so much, they have negative credibility.
And I get that all this veers pretty quickly into conspiracy theorizing, but obviously something medical happened to Trump.
There are a few theories floating around the Internet today. Some of the nuttier ones involve Trump setting up reasons to resign via the 25th amendment so Pence can pardon him and whatnot, but, for the umpteenth time: Trump and his businesses, organizations, flunkies and kids, are all facing serious state investigations that a hypothetical President Pence cannot pardon him out of. Even if Trump resigns and gets a pardon, he’s still facing charges.
The most plausible-seeming theories involve some kind of heart incident or possibly a panic attack. Mild heart attack? Heart palpitations? I mean, the White House is equipped for a lot. If he had a mild heart attack, I guess maybe Trump could convalesce at the White House? I’m not sure.
Panic attacks mimic heart attacks, like, a lot. I say this as someone who has had panic attacks and been completely convinced I was having a heart attack. I have been to the doctor for that exact reason. And to be sure that’s not what’s happening, you’d need to do like at least an EKG and maybe some blood work. And if the person you’re checking out is a 70+ year old man who probably already has heart problems (because it’s kind of ridiculous to think he doesn’t – Bernie was healthy as hell as far as anyone knows, and he still managed to have a heart attack the other month), that probably complicates the situation.
So, here’s two things to think about in regards to this story:
- The President of the United States had a serious enough medical issue to require a hasty trip to the hospital and a few days of rest, and his administration is blatantly lying about it.
- Or, alternatively, this actually was a spur-of-the-moment trip (I guess it could happen; Trump is super weird) and the Trump administration has so wildly damaged its own credibility that anything they say beggars belief, which is a different, but equally serious, issue.
Either way, this is nothing good.
(Image credit: Donald Trump, by Gage Skidmore.)
Notes & Thoughts 