A 2015 doctor’s note describing US president Donald Trump’s health as “astonishingly excellent” was dictated, it turns out, by Mr Trump himself, according to the doctor who signed the note.
Dr Harold Bornstein, described in the letter as Mr Trump's physician "since 1980", told CNN on Tuesday that he did not write the letter, which Mr Trump publicised on the eve of the presidential primary contests to allay concerns about his fitness.
“He dictated that whole letter. I didn’t write that letter,” Dr Bornstein told CNN. “I just made it up as I went along.”
The story is a reversal by Dr Bornstein, who claimed in August 2016 that he had dashed off the letter “in five minutes . . . while the driver waited for me”.
The White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Mr Trump made public the 2015 letter from Dr Bornstein in response to media pressure for him to produce medical records. Two days before the letter was released, Mr Trump tweeted: “As a presidential candidate, I have instructed my long-time doctor to issue, within two weeks, a full medical report - it will show perfection.”
Then, Dr Bornstein now claims, Mr Trump dictated the letter to Dr Bornstein, who signed it.
The letter said Mr Trump had shed 9kg (15lbs) in the previous 12 months, said “his cardiovascular status is excellent” and concluded: “If elected, Mr Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
White House ‘raid’
Earlier Tuesday, Dr Bornstein said the longtime Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller and two other men had conducted a "raid" on his offices for Trump's medical records in February 2017, two days after Bornstein told a newspaper that he had for years prescribed Propecia, a hair growth medicine, for Mr Trump.
Dr Bornstein told NBC Newsthat he was not given a form authorising him to release Mr Trump's records and that Mr Schiller, along with Trump Organisation lawyer Alan Garten, took the originals and copies of Trump's charts and lab reports, including records filed under pseudonyms. The raid left him "raped, frightened and sad", Dr Bornstein said.
Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, defended the move. Asked about Dr Bornstein’s characterisation of it as a “raid”, she replied: “No, that is not my understanding.”
Ms Sanders added: “It would be standard procedure for a newly elected president’s records to be in possession by the White House medical unit. And that was what was taking place, is those records were being transferred over to the White House medical unit as requested.”
Dr Bornstein said he was speaking out now after seeing reports that Ronny Jackson, allegedly known as “the candy man” for loosely prescribing pain medications as White House doctor, will not return to his post as Mr Trump’s personal physician after his nomination to run veterans affairs became mired in scandal and collapsed.
Trump in the past has pretended to be his own spokesman and was said by people who were there to have dictated oboard Air Force One a statement issued by Donald Trump Jr to explain why he met with Russian operatives at Trump Tower in June 2016. They "primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children", Mr Trump Jr's statement said.–Guardian