Taranaki Daily News

‘Girthers’ target president over medical exam

-

UNITED STATES: In a practice that may seem peculiar to those outside the US, presidents regularly undergo medical examinatio­ns and the results are made public.

Donald Trump’s first periodic examinatio­n, conducted this week by Dr Ronny Jackson, a rear admiral in the US Navy and the White House physician, came back with a relatively clean bill of health.

His cholestero­l is too high but he has excellent cardiac health, a perfect cognitive score and great genes.

It was welcome news for the president, who has weathered several stories recently about his increasing­ly erratic behaviour and questionab­le diet of McDonald’s cheeseburg­ers.

But conspiracy theorists were quick to jump on one result: his height.

The doctor’s report put Trump’s height at 6 feet 3 inches (1.9 metres) tall, and his weight at 239 pounds (108 kilograms).

However, a New York driver’s licence issued to Trump in 2012 recorded his height as 6 feet 2 inches (1.88m), meaning the president has grown two centimetre­s in five years, something highly unusual for a 71-year-old man.

That extra inch convenient­ly put Trump’s body mass index at 29.9, just below the 30.0 threshold for someone to be described as officially obese. Instead, he is overweight.

Mimicking the ‘‘birther’’ conspiracy that Trump perpetuate­d – which questioned whether former president Barack Obama was born outside the US, thereby making him ineligible for office – a ‘‘girther’’ conspiracy has quickly taken hold.

Several observers lined up photos of Trump next to other leaders like Obama, whose height is listed as 6 feet 1 inch (1.85m). Others juxtaposed photos of toned and trim athletes who supposedly share the same height and weight as Trump – perhaps an unfair comparison given how muscle distribute­s weight differentl­y in the body.

James Gunn, director of the superhero film Guardians of the Galaxy, took it one step further. Using the #girther hashtag, he offered to donate US$100,000 (NZ$125,000) to charity if Trump agreed to get on the scales again, this time in front of ‘‘an impartial medical professor, okayed by both of us’’.

However, former Obama administra­tion aides were quick to jump to Jackson’s defence, describing him as a competent and skilled doctor who treated many White House staff under the previous president.

Jackson spent an hour answering reporters’ questions this week, and was repeatedly asked how a septuagena­rian with little exercise apart from golf and a love of fast food could register such an excellent bill of health.

‘‘It’s called genetics,’’ he said. ‘‘I told the president if he had eaten healthier over the last 25 years, he might live to be 200.’’

Jackson said Trump slept for only four to five hours a night but had ‘‘a lot of energy and a lot of stamina’’.

Still, he had a goal for Trump of losing 4kg to 7kg through a regimen of diet and exercise.

‘‘He’s more enthusiast­ic about the diet part than the exercise part, but we’re going to do both,’’ he said.

Yesterday, White House spokeswoma­n Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the administra­tion stood by the accuracy of everything in the doctor’s report. – Fairfax

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from New Zealand