The health of the President

It is nice to know that being fat is now the, ahem, biggest of Trump's problems and deficiencies.

A quick drop in by me! I'm buried so it is just a quick drop in.

The issue to me is not his weight (which I couldn't care less about), and not even really his health (though that does matter). The issue is whether he is lying or misrepresenting it.

I'm not sure whether he's lying about his weight, but he is lying about his height by at least one inch and possibly (especially given that people shrink with age) by as much as three inches.

(1)   Obama is 6'1 and Jeb Bush is 6'3". Google pics of Trump standing next to them. He's a bit shorter than Obama (esp. considering his puffy hair and Obama's lack thereof) and very noticeably shorter than Jeb.







(2)   Trump's own driver's license lists him as 6'2" www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-drivers-license-height-232948 -- what, he grew since then?

(3)  A Vanity Fair article about his examination by Dr. Oz in Septempber 2016 states he weighs 267 pounds. www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/09/donald-trump-health-records-dr-oz Do we think he lost 28 pounds since the election? Sure, the article and Dr. Oz might have gotten it wrong, but do we think the immensely vain Trump, who was trying to say how fit and healthy he was, would have just let that stand?  (Especially since it sounds in the article like Dr. Oz announced his results in front of Trump?)  I don't. Also, frankly, he sure looks a lot more like a guy who weighs 267 than a guy who weighs 239.

No. He's lying about his height so that his weight won't put him in the obese range. It's the lie that bugs me, not the weight. Lying about something so obvious, so inconsequential...yeah, it's not a good sign. He just can't help himself.

(4)  To note, even a one inch fib about his height (and I submit it's at least a 2 inch fib and based on the Obama pic, I'd say it leans towards a 3 inch fib), even if he's telling the truth about his weight, moves him from overweight to obese. (239 pounds is exactly one pound under an obese BMI for a 6'3" man.)  Maybe he was once 6'2 inches (maybe--because lots of people, esp. men, esp. vain men, lie about their height), but older people and especially inactive older people, shrink with age.  My once 5'4 mother is now 5'2", and she's roughly Trump's age.

(5)   Also, a number of doctors have weighed in and opined that based on the numbers on his chart (changes in his cholesterol levels and so forth) he is NOT, as the White House doctor claimed, in great shape -- those markers indicate an unhealthy man and a real heart attack risk. www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/us/politics/trump-physical-heart-health-cholesterol.html

So. It's not the weight. It's the lies. As usual.


ETA:

Reviewing the VF article more closely, it appears that Dr. Oz did NOT examine Trump -- he relied on the report Trump gave him of the examination performed by Trump's own physician.  He apparently read that weight -- 267 -- out in front of Trump, saying Trump was "somewhat overweight."  If it were you -- and I assume none of us are nearly as vain, egocentric and image-obsessed as Trump -- would you let a 30 pound weight error go unremarked, esp. if it were used to say you were overweight, when your whole point was to show the world what great shape you're in?   

abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/donald-trump-releases-medical-information-dr-oz-show-42102075"

(Skip ahead in video to about 1:40 -- video of Trump handing medical record to Oz to comment on. Would look for entire show, but really need to get back to work.)

But even if that weight is wrong, if he's shorter than 6'3" (and he is, and knowingly, given his driver's license) then his current weight makes him obese.

By the way -- that mental fitness test Trump took is rather a joke, considering he's president.  It asks him to identify a camel and draw a clock.  www.cnn.com/2018/01/16/health/montreal-cognitive-assessment-mental-health-trump/index.html  My dad would have passed it in the early stages of his dementia (though not the later stages, of course).  I should HOPE the president would pass it.  But it tells us exactly nothing about his capability for complex thought, etc.

ETA:

I also have to note that dementia patients, even rather advanced ones, have good and bad days. There were some times my dad could fake his way through an interaction well enough that most who didn't know wouldn't guess he suffered from dementia (even we didn't know for sure until it was well advanced), and other times he couldn't remember my mom's name and where he was. People keep pointing at "good days" of his (which I dispute are particularly good) and saying "see? He was sharp! He can't have dementia." Yeah. Not true, especially in the early stages. Just saying -- many of his actions, speeches, and looks remind me strongly of my dad and the other dementia patients I've come into contact with. The repetition, the obsession, the forgetfulness, the blank stare, the walking right past a car waiting for him at the bottom of the plane stairs...

I guess it's possible that there's fibbing going on. Of course, that would make a heavily decorated two-star admiral and all of the attendant staff involved in Trump's physical complicit in that fibbing.

Simple answer?  Shoes.

Or he guessed his height on his driver's license and was actually measured by his physician.

How tall am I? Well, tall is relative, but I'm 5'3 to 5'6, depending on what I am wearing and who is doing the measuring.

Again, what possible motivation would a highly decorated Admiral who has served two administrations have for lying about something as trivial as height and weight?

Or maybe, just maybe, it isn't a big deal no matter how much people try to make it out to be?

ETA: On the photo evidence of height, both Michelle Obama and Melania Trump are 5"11.  Yet in the photo, Michelle Obama appears to be taller, despite the fact Melania Trump is obviously wearing heels.  There is a concept called forced perspective that pretty much invalidated anecdotal photographic evidence when there is not scale chart apparent.

I've never once been measured at the DMV, but have been measured at every doctor's office I've been to. So I'll take the word from the medical profession over the impatient lady behind the DMV counter any day.

Also, the simplest answer would be Jeb Bush isn't really 6"3. Ben Carson is 6' and Jeb seems to be slightly more than 3" taller.  Chris Christie is 5"11 and that seems about right when compared to Carson.



And here are all three together:



But, I suppose it makes sense that Ben Carson could be lying about his height as well....

But I'll prefer to think that Jeb's height isn't correct rather than Trump has convinced an entire medical staff to lie about his height.