“These are two doctors,” Trump told Terris. “And by the way, I don’t know them, they’re not my best friends. They’re respected doctors that practice out of Walter Reed. And they happen to be taking care of me for anything — but I don’t need any taking care of because I’m in perfect health. I do purposely every year or less a physical, because I think the American people should know that the president is healthy so you don’t get a guy like the last one, who was the worst thing that ever happened to older people."
"Because I know people in their 90s that are 100 percent," the president added. "Gary Player is 90 years old. He shot 70 with me the other day.”
Trump threatened "to sue the a-- off of ‘New York’ Magazine" if Terris wrote "a bad story" about his health, but the journalist found it was difficult to get clear answers on the topic — even when he asked the White House doctors directly.
“Can I just ask about the MRI?” Terris said.
Trump agreed, but pinned the blame for the exam on Capt. Sean Barbabella, his lead physician, and Col. James Jones, a physician’s assistant with a Ph.D. in health science.
“It was the worst f---ing thing I ever did, and I blame them," Trump said, pointing at the pair. “They wanted me to take it, and because I took it, people want to say, ‘Oh, there must be something wrong.’”
“Can you explain why you asked me that?” Trump added, shaking his head. “Stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”
Jones shuffled the papers in his lap, Terris wrote, and explained they asked the president to take the test during a scheduled visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, but he added the exam was not actually magnetic resonance imaging.
“We did a computerized tomography exam of his chest and his abdomen,” Jones said. “It’s MRI-like.”
Trump interrupted to insist the test was not conducted for any specific reason.
“It’s because the machine was sitting there," he said, "I’m sitting right next to it.”
“There was no evidence of narrowing of any blood vessels,” Barbabella offered. “And no abnormalities of the heart.”
“The reason for the imaging, as routine as we stated, is that any patient his age could have things, and we ruled them out,” Jones added. “The story should be about the fact that the results were, uh, perfect. They did not demonstrate any problems.”
“Excellent results,” Barbabella muttered, almost to himself, Terris wrote. “They were excellent results.”
“I love these two guys; they’re great,” Trump said. “But I don’t know them. They’re White House doctors.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt then broke in and asked Jones whether he had worked for the Obamas, and he agreed, and Terris asked which president was healthier: Trump, at nearly 80 years old and reputed to abstain from vegetables, or Barack Obama, who had been 55 at the end of his second term and famously a fitness fanatic.
"Trump stared across the desk, making eye contact with Jones. Jones didn’t hesitate," Terris wrote. "'President Trump,' Jones said."
"Trump nodded," the reporter noted. "There was no sign of a smile, as if there could not have been any other answer to that question. “Write that,” he said, turning to me."
