A former White House cardiologist says Donald Trump looked "unwell" during his "manic" address to the nation.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who served as Vice President Dick Cheney's cardiologist for decades, made a series of posts to X as Trump addressed the nation. Though Dr. Reiner has been critical of the president in the past, he shared genuine concern for how "unwell" the 79-year-old Commander-in-Chief looks.
Taking to the social media platform, Dr. Reiner wrote, "No one should be happy to see the president like this. He looks unwell." In a post shortly before this, Dr Reiner had written, "I'm seriously concerned about the health of the president."
Two further posts were shared by Dr. Reiner, one reading, "The pace of this address is manic." Another post from the cardiologist noted the dissonance between Trump's speech and the festive background. Dr. Reiner wrote, "The tone of this speech doesn't quite match the festive background."
Previous comments from Dr. Reiner saw the cardiologist air his concerns over the MRI scan Trump received a few months ago. Speaking with CNN, Dr. Reiner suggested there is "no preventative" measures for an MRI scan as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had claimed.
Dr. Reiner said, "Well, there really is no preventative cardiac MRI. This is not a standard test for, you know, an 80-year-old man to undergo advanced imaging. Of course, the whole note has kind of a weird, defensive, you know, evasive tone to it. First of all, this is not part of the president's comprehensive physical examination."
"He had that in April, and then he underwent some more testing in July. If you look at his first administration, the president, like most presidents, only underwent one comprehensive physical exam every year. So this comes completely off-cycle."
"Second, it's filled with euphemisms. Again, Dr. Barbara Bell, the president's physician, states that he underwent advanced imaging. Well, what specific advanced imaging did the president have? Was it an MRI, as the president said? Was it a CT [scan]? Did he have both? Why not just spell it out?"
