The White House said at the time that Mr. Trump only went through a series of "rushes and labs" as part of his annual physical exam because he expected a "very busy 2020". Mr. Trump never physically completed this.
Similar to the publication of a president's tax returns, the publication of the results of an annual physical examination is a habit, not a legal requirement. (The responsibility of the doctor in the White House, meanwhile, rests with the patient, not the public.) Presidents do not have to tell the public about their annual physical exam or the status or history of their health, although all modern presidents since Richard M. Nixon have decided to give out some information.
Dr. Conley's predecessor on the job, Dr. Jackson, had served under the last three presidents. But Dr. Jackson, a retired Rear Admiral in the Navy who is now a Republican candidate for Congress in Texas and approved by the President, appeared particularly keen to please Mr. Trump.
At a press conference in January 2018, Dr. Jackson said Mr. Trump was in excellent health, citing his "incredible genes" and his assessment that he did "extremely well" on a cognitive test and was "mentally very, very" sharp. "He also said when Mr Trump had adhered to better nutrition for the past 20 years, he could have "lived up to 200 years".
It was also not clear whether Dr. Jackson was falsifying the President's height – he said Mr. Trump was 6 feet 3 inches when his driver's license listed him as 6 feet 2 inches. In any case, his body mass index would have defined him as obese.
White House doctors have also refused to provide a full account of why First Lady Melania Trump visited Walter Reed in 2018 for a routine embolization procedure "to treat benign kidney disease." Your five-day hospital stay for a procedure that usually ends in one was never taken into account.
The inaccurate and misleading briefing from the White House Doctor on Saturday was a disappointment to some administration officials who had urged Dr. Conley is taking on the public face of the current news cycle in the hopes that he will be seen as a more credible source than Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary.
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