Ailing Trump, 79, Insists He Feels 29
The frequently bruised and cankle-stricken president says time has barely touched him.
Cankle-stricken Donald Trump has a remarkably generous view of his own age.
The 79-year-old president claimed Wednesday that he feels like he did in his twenties, despite ailing from multiple age-related health issues.
“How do you feel now as you approach 80,” Trump was asked by NBC’s Tom Llamas, 46, during an interview on Wednesday.
Donald Trump's left hand carried a dark bruise during a signing ceremony for the “Board of Peace” at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week. He claimed he had bumped his hand on furniture and put the bruising down to his aspirin use.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“I feel great. I mean, physically and mentally, I feel like I did 50 years ago,” the president replied, suggesting that time hadn’t touched him since he was 29. “It’s crazy.”
Trump added, “Now, there’ll be a time when I won’t be able to give you that answer. But that time hasn’t come, you know.”
The president, who has struggled to stay awake at various official events, revisited his bragging about taking three Montreal Cognitive Assessments, a test designed to screen for early dementia or mild cognitive impairment.
Trump has walked on swollen ankles for months. The White House announced in July that Trump had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a condition common in seniors in which blood pools in the legs due to poor circulation.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
“I take cognitive physicals,” he said, pointing at his head, “so I do a cognitive mind test, OK, and a lot of people wouldn’t be able to do very well. Not easy. You know, you get to those last questions.”
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He added, “I’ve aced—I’ve done three of them. No other president has agreed to do them. I do them because I have no problem with it because I’m one hundred percent.”
The president has appeared to doze off at Oval Office pressers and Cabinet meetings.
GIF by The Daily Beast/The White House
Llamas asked Trump about his aspirin use, which the president has blamed for the frequent bruises on his hands. He revealed last month that he takes a higher dose than his doctor recommends.
“You know I’ve taken aspirin for 30 years, and I don’t want to change it,” Trump said. “They say, ‘Take the smaller one,’ I say, ‘Well, I want that blood to be nice and thin running through my heart.’”
Trump deflected further questions about his fitness for office by attacking former President Joe Biden, 83.
“I know people that are 95 years old that are sharp as a tack, and Biden was a bad thing for old people. He’s the worst thing that ever happened to old people, because he obviously didn’t have it,” Trump said, before blasting the press for failing to “report the obvious.”
Trump pictured in 1976.
NY Daily News via Getty Images
The Daily Beast has documented Trump’s deteriorating health in his second term, reporting Tuesday that the president suffered from swollen ankles at his meeting with Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
The White House revealed last year that Trump had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a condition common in seniors where leg veins struggle to push blood back up to the heart.
While he claims to feel decades younger and “sharper than I was 25 years ago,” Trump has fueled speculation about cognitive slippage in addition to his physical health issues, with his drowsiness, frequent mental flubs, erratic behavior, and rambling speech drawing scrutiny.
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