Trump administration figures are “irritated” by talk about the 79-year-old president’s health, according to his biographer.
Author Michael Wolff told the Daily Beast podcast Inside Trump’s Head on Tuesday that, based on what he’s heard, those in the administration see the president as “inexhaustible” while acknowledging that “one day he will just go over.”
After host Joanna Coles alluded to the White House’s odd explanation for a new bruise on the president’s left hand—as well as how it avoided showing Trump’s swollen ankles in an official Oval Office photo Monday—Wolff weighed in.
“The only thing that I’m hearing about his health is everyone is irritated that people are focusing on his health—I mean, the people around him,” Wolff said, a few weeks after the White House revealed that Trump has chronic venous insufficiency, which can cause swollen legs.
“Because—and actually this makes some sense—what they see is Donald Trump always moving ahead, a man who doesn’t stop. Inexhaustible,” Wolff explained. “On the other hand, they acknowledge one day he will just go over.”
“They say that?” Coles asked.
“Yeah,” Wolff replied. “The idea that he will fade, that he will become sick, that he will be mortal in that way that we all are—they actually don’t accept he will stop at one point and that will be it.”
When reached for comment Tuesday, a White House spokesperson insisted that Trump’s energy levels surpassed those of any other president.
“President Trump is the most energetic and transformative president in history, and he works nonstop on behalf of the American people,” Davis Ingle told the Daily Beast. “Today’s three hour marathon long Cabinet meeting that was open to the press and the American people prove exactly that.”
The White House has provided similarly grandiose language recently about Trump’s fitness from Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, a Republican who was physician to the president under Trump until March 2018. It was Jackson who said that year that Trump might’ve lived to be 200 years old if he had a better diet.
Not only is the president facing scrutiny over his physical health–with even conspiracy theorist Alex Jones warning of a “collapse” if he doesn’t ease up on his work hours–but his acuity as well, in light of several gaffes.
That includes inventing a fake governor during a Monday press conference and forgetting the name of an ocean earlier this month.
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