Trump addresses health rumors
US President Donald Trump has revealed that he takes a higher than recommended daily dose of aspirin and has blamed the medication for leading to bruising on his hands, which has sparked speculation in the US media in recent months.
He made the comments in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Thursday.
“They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart,” Trump said. “I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?”
Trump takes 325 milligrams of aspirin a day for “cardiac prevention,” WSJ wrote, citing the president’s personal physician, Sean Barbabella. A low dose is most commonly 81mg, it added, citing the Mayo Clinic.
The US leader said he turned away recommendations to lower the dosage, explaining that he has been taking it daily for 25 years and he is “a little superstitious.”
A White House-provided Mayo Clinic analysis has estimated the president’s cardiac age to be that of a 65-year-old, the WSJ said.
When pressed by the newspaper on other health habits, Trump admitted that despite being prescribed compression socks to treat leg swelling, he stopped wearing them as he “didn’t like them.”
He also expressed no interest in exercise other than golf. “I just don’t like it,” he said, arguing that spending hours on a treadmill is “boring.”
In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump declared that White House doctors have pronounced him in “perfect health.” He added that he had “aced” a cognitive exam and called for all US presidents and vice presidents to take such a test.
During his reelection campaign last year, the 79-year-old often called for his predecessor Joe Biden to undergo a cognitive exam due to the then president’s alleged mental decline late in his term. The Democrat, the oldest person to hold the US presidency, left office at age 82 following scrutiny of his possible cognitive deterioration after a disastrous debate with Trump.
