Trump to take physical after slurred speech

The day after President Donald Trump slurred through part of a speech, the White House announced that he will undergo a physical exam.

Mr. Trump will take the exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, D.C., early next year and the results will be made public, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday.

Questions about the president’s well-being were raised Wednesday after he garbled the tail-end of a speech about moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Mr. Trump’s cap-off — “God bless the United States” — was barely audible because of the speech flub.

Ms. Sanders brushed off concerns about the president’s health as “frankly, pretty ridiculous.”

“The president’s throat was dry, nothing more than that,” she told reporters.

She added: “He does have a physical scheduled for the first part of next year, the full physical that most presidents go through. That will take place at Walter Reed, and those records will be released by the doctor following that.”

At age 70, Mr. Trump was the oldest president elected to his first term. He has not publicly released any medical records.

Stopgap spending bill

Congress on Thursday passed a stopgap spending bill to prevent a government shutdown this weekend and buy time for challenging talks on a wide range of unfinished business on Capitol Hill. The shutdown reprieve came as all sides issued optimistic takes on an afternoon White House meeting between top congressional leaders and Mr. Trump.

The measure passed the House 235-193, mostly along party lines, and breezed through the Senate on a sweeping 81-14 tally barely an hour later. It would keep the government running through Dec.22.

Toomey takes on taxes

Key Republican lawmakers — including Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. — on Thursday voiced opposition to efforts to scale back a proposed cut in the corporate income tax rate to pay for other tax breaks, complicating efforts to appease Republicans from high-tax states.