WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump defended his energy and health in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, revealing that he underwent a CT scan, not an MRI, in an October exam that he and the White House have withheld details about.
In an interview published Thursday, Trump said he regretted undergoing advanced imaging of his heart and abdomen during an October visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center because it raised public questions about his health. His doctor, in a report released by the White House in December, said “advanced imaging” as a preventative test for men his age.
Trump he originally described it as an MRI but he said he didn’t know what part of his body he scanned. A CT scan is a faster form of diagnostic imaging than an MRI, but offers less detail about tissue differences.
The president’s doctor, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, said in a White House release Thursday that Trump underwent the test in October because he planned to be at Walter Reed to meet with people who work there. Trump had he already passed his annual physical in April.
“President Trump has agreed to meet with staff and troops at Walter Reed Medical Hospital in October. To make the most of the President’s time at the hospital, we have recommended that he undergo another routine physical to ensure continued optimal health,” Barbabella said.
Barbabella said he asked the president to undergo either a CT scan or an MRI “to definitively rule out any cardiovascular problems” and the results were “absolutely normal and revealed absolutely no abnormalities.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Thursday that the president’s doctors and the White House “have always maintained that the president received advanced imaging,” but said “further details about the imaging have been released by the president himself” because he has “nothing to hide.”
“In retrospect, it’s a shame I took it because it gave them some ammunition,” Trump said interview for The Wall Street Journal. “I would have been much better off if they hadn’t, because the fact that I took it, he said, ‘Oh yeah, is something going on?’ Well, nothing is happening.”
The 79-year-old became the oldest person to take the oath of office when he took the presidential oath last year and has been sensitive to questions about his health, particularly when he repeatedly questioned his predecessor Joe Biden’s fitness for office.
Biden, who turned 82 in the final year of his presidency, has been dogged by scrutiny of his age and mental acuity at the end of his term and during his abandoned re-election bid.
But questions have also been raised about Trump’s health this year, as he was seen with bruises on the back of his right hand that were noticeable despite applying makeup on top, along with noticeable swelling around his ankles.
The White House said this summer that the president had been diagnosed chronic venous insufficiencya common condition among older adults. The condition occurs when the veins in the legs cannot properly carry blood back to the heart and it collects in the lower limbs.
In the interview, Trump said he briefly tried wearing compression socks to deal with the swelling, but stopped because he didn’t like them.
The bruise on Trump’s hand, according to Leavitt, is from “frequent handshakes and the use of aspirin,” which Trump regularly takes to reduce his risk of heart attack and stroke.
He said he takes more aspirin than his doctors recommend, but said he resists taking less because he’s been taking it for 25 years and said he’s “a bit superstitious.” According to Barbabella, Trump takes 325 milligrams of aspirin a day.
“They say aspirin is a good blood thinner, and I don’t want thick blood running through my heart,” Trump said. “I want nice, thin blood flowing through my heart. Does that make sense?”
Trump denied in the interview that he fell asleep during the meeting at the White House when the cameras caught him with his eyes closedinstead he insisted on staying with his eyes or blinking.
“I just shut down. It’s very calming for me,” he said. “Sometimes they take pictures of me winking, winking, and they catch me winking.
He said he never slept much at night, a habit he also described during his first termand said he starts his day early in the White House residence before moving to the Oval Office around 10 a.m. and working until 7 or 8 p.m.
The president dismissed questions about his hearing, saying he only has trouble hearing “when there’s a lot of people talking” and said he has a lot of energy, which he attributes to his genes.
“Genetics is very important,” he said. “And I have very good genetics.
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