The Slatest

Trump’s Doctor Wrote Letter Declaring “Excellent” Health in Five Minutes

Dr. Harold Bornstein talks to NBC News in an interview aired on Friday.

Screenshot/NBC News

The letter Donald Trump released last year from his physician that declared the presidential contender was in “astonishingly excellent” health was already strange. The horribly informal language, the hyperbole, and the lack of details were just three of the reasons why many raised questions about whether the letter was even real. Dr. Harold Bornstein finally spoke up on Friday, sitting down with NBC News for an astonishing interview that made the whole tale even stranger, ultimately raising more questions about the health of the 70-year-old candidate who would be the oldest person elected president of the United States if he wins in November.

Bornstein said it’s hardly a coincidence that it sounds like the letter was a rushed affair. He wrote it in only about five minutes while a limo waited outside.

“I thought about it all day and at the end, I get rushed, and I get anxious when I get rushed,” Bornstein said. “So I try to get four or five lines down as fast as possible so that they would be happy.

One of the aspects of the letter that many raised questions about from the beginning is how it seemed to use words that Trump himself would use to describe his own health, leading many to joke that the candidate had penned the letter. In the interview, Bornstein said that, yes, it’s true he wouldn’t normally use that kind of language but admitted he may have been influenced by Trump’s language. “I think I probably picked up his kind of language and then just interpreted it to my own,” he said.

In the letter, Bornstein had declared that Trump’s lab results were “astonishingly excellent” and that “his physical strength and stamina are extraordinary.” But in the interview, he toned that down a bit. “I don’t think he’s in any better or worse than the average person that goes and exercises every single day,” he said.

What about the part when he declared that “if elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”? The doctor stands by those remarks. “I like that sentence to be quite honest with you and all the rest of them are either sick or dead,” he said.

In the end though, Trump only has himself to blame for making his doctor letter news again. When Trump started joining the fringe conspiracy theorists by raising questions about Hillary Clinton’s health many started asking questions about his own health. Earlier this month, for example, Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald completely eviscerated the letter, noting problems with everything from its font, to the website listed in the letterhead, and to the kind of language that was used. In what may be one of the most eyebrow-raising aspects of the letter, Bornstein declared that a recent examination of the candidate “showed only positive results.” Sounds like positive language until you think about it for a second and realize that in medical language “positive results” usually means that a disease was discovered.

Trump’s campaign said it was ridiculous to insinuate there was anything wrong with the letter just because it was written quickly. Trump is willing to release more medical records, his campaign says, but only if Clinton does so as well.

Screenshot/donaldjtrump.com