Last November, right before President Trump took an unscheduled trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Vice President Mike Pence was told that he needed to be ready to temporarily assume the powers of the presidency, New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt writes in his new book, Donald Trump v. The United States.
Schmidt said that while reporting for the book, he learned that in the hours before Trump's trip to the hospital, "word went out in the West Wing" that Pence had to be on standby in case "Trump had to undergo a procedure that would have required him to be anesthetized." Pence did not end up having to assume the powers of the presidency, but Schmidt's book raises new questions about why Trump had to go to the hospital.
At the time, then-White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham claimed Trump had a "free weekend" and elected to "begin portions of his routine annual physical exam." Presidents do not normally conduct their physicals in stages, and a person familiar with the matter told CNN in November that Trump's visit did not follow protocol. There was never any staff-wide notice sent about a "VIP" coming in, the source said, indicating that the trip was not routine or planned in advance. CNN asked the White House on Monday for a comment on Schmidt's book, but the request was declined.
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