Donald Trump wants to make sure you understand: He did not, repeat NOT, have a series of mini-strokes. The series of mini-strokes that author Don Winslow—rather than, say, a media organization—had floated on Twitter, did NOT happen, and Donald Trump is going to keep repeating that claim until all you people stop talking about whether he had a series of mini-strokes.
Trump returned to that insistence late Tuesday night, responding to a CNN story that had been published early Tuesday morning highlighting the report, found in New York Times journalist Michael Schmidt’s forthcoming book, that Mike Pence had been notified he might have to temporarily assume the powers of the presidency during Trump’s unannounced November 2019 trip to Walter Reed hospital. So CNN reports one thing, and 20 hours later Trump returns to deny—again—a different, though related, thing that hadn’t been reported by any major media organization. Way to not settle the questions about just what happened at that unplanned visit to Walter Reed.
To review: In November 2019, Trump suddenly went to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, a trip not included on his public schedule or, reportedly, on his internal schedule. His previous trips to Walter Reed for physicals had been announced in advance, both on his public schedule and in notifications to all medical staff at the hospital. That didn’t happen this time.
Trump usually travels by helicopter to Walter Reed. In November, he went by motorcade.
He spent about two hours there, half the time his normal physical exams take, and the White House subsequently claimed the trip was to “begin portions of his routine annual physical exam.” (Annual physical exams aren’t usually split into two for presidents any more than for the rest of us.) As far as is publicly available, he never returned to complete that physical he started in such unusual fashion. In June, with attention focused on Trump’s difficulty walking down a ramp at West Point, the White House released a report on Trump’s health supposedly based on a physical that had supposedly been conducted at the White House.
Now, Trump has repeatedly denied on Twitter that he has had a series of mini-strokes, as well as that Pence was put on alert. “The reason for the visit to Walter Reed, together with the full press pool, was to complete my yearly physical,” Trump tweeted. Except the White House said he was there to begin his yearly physical, which wasn’t completed at that time.
Many people are hearing about the series of mini-strokes for the first time in Trump’s denials. Some of us (me!) have never even heard of author Don Winslow, who started claiming this in early August. Yet when news came out that Michael Schmidt’s forthcoming book would report that “in the hours leading up to Trump's trip to the hospital, word went out in the West Wing for the vice president to be on standby to take over the powers of the presidency temporarily if Trump had to undergo a procedure that would have required him to be anesthetized,” that’s not the first thing Trump denied. The White House has released a denial from Trump’s doctor, but Trump seems to feel the need to keep tweeting about it.
It’s interesting, that’s for sure, watching Trump elevate a rumor circulating on Twitter—and not even all that widely—into a multi-day news story.
