Doctor says Trump dictated letter saying his health was 'extraordinary'
The letter released in 2015 by then-candidate Donald Trump's doctor, which boldly declared that, if elected, Trump would be "the healthiest individual" to ever become president, was the hyperbolic work of Trump himself, Dr. Harold Bornstein revealed Tuesday.
"He dictated that whole letter," he told CNN. "I didn't write that letter. I just made it up as I went along." The letter, signed by Bornstein, was written in the same bombastic tone Trump is famous for — it declared that Trump's blood pressure was "astonishingly excellent" and his "physical strength and stamina are extraordinary," for example.
When asked at the time if he definitely wrote the letter, Bornstein said that yes, those were his words, but he's now telling CNN that Trump dictated the letter while Bornstein and his wife were driving through Central Park. "I would tell him what he couldn't put in there," he said. "They came to pick up their letter at 4 o'clock or something." Bornstein was full of big announcements on Tuesday, also telling NBC News that Trump aides came to his office last year and "raided" it, taking all of Trump's medical records without his permission.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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