A leading physician says that President Donald Trump's claims of ignorance when it comes to his recent MRI scan is "nonsensical," insisting the president absolutely knows why his doctors had him take the test, according to The Daily Beast.
Dr. Vin Gupta, a medical analyst for NBC News and former Chief Medical Officer at Amazon, tells the MeidasTouch Podcast, "You know when you get an MRI what part of your body is going into the very narrow part of that MRI scanner because you hear it. You have to be in there for, you know, anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes."
Trump confirmed in late October that he underwent an MRI scan as part of a recent physical examination, claiming the results were "perfect." But when asked about why he took the scan, he claimed ignorance.
"I have no idea what they analyzed, but whatever they analyzed, they analyzed it well," Trump said when asked by a reporter if the MRI was on his brain. "And they said that I had as good a result as they've ever seen."
Dr. Gupta says he doesn't buy it.
"The notion that he doesn’t know what got scanned is nonsensical because he’s hearing the magnet beat, and it’s for minutes,” Gupta says. “It’s not for seconds, so he definitely knows what got scanned.”
The doctor also says that "medical professionals very seldom order MRIs as part of a routine physical check-up because the scans tend to throw up 'a lot of false positives,'" The Daily Beast explains.
“It’s actually a terrible screening tool,” the doctor explained. “The fact that his team is saying, ‘Hey, he got this MRI. It’s part of an executive physical, part of his routine physical,’ is utter nonsense. That’s not a part of a routine physical exam.”
As for what is actually going on with Trump's health, Dr. Gupta can only offer an educated guess.
“Is there something happening in the brain? Is the vasculature of the brain not getting enough blood to the brain? Who knows? Did he have stroke burden?” Gupta asks.
"I’ve seen the same videos as you, just of his functional status looking, at times, pretty unstable. If there’s early detection of something, that would make sense: that he is high-risk for something, or they already know he has a condition, maybe a neurologic issue, and they’re monitoring it. That would make complete sense," he says.