Maddowblog-Amid health questions, Trump changes his story in weird and unexpected ways

[LetMyPeopleVote]

“I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart,” the president said. “Does that make sense?” Actually, no.

Amid health questions, Trump changes his story in weird and unexpected ways - MS NOW

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— (@oc88.bsky.social) 2026-01-02T15:24:34.236Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/amid-health-questions-trump-changes-his-story-in-weird-and-unexpected-ways

While it’s possible that there was no cause for concern, Trump’s unfortunate record made it difficult to give him and his team the benefit of the doubt. It was against this backdrop that the president spoke to The Wall Street Journal about these questions, and his comments advanced the story in weird and unexpected ways. From the report:

President Trump is taking more aspirin than his doctors recommend. He briefly tried wearing compression socks for his swelling ankles, but stopped because he didn’t like them. And he regrets undergoing advanced imaging because it generated scrutiny of his health.

‘In retrospect, it’s too bad I took it because it gave them a little ammunition,’ Trump said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on his decision to get a cardiovascular and abdominal scan in October.

Broadly speaking, there are a handful of key takeaways from the reporting and interview......

The president, the Journal went on to report, “has at times eschewed the advice of his doctors and scoffed at the medical community’s widely accepted health recommendations.” This is especially true when it comes to aspirin, which he chooses to take daily and which apparently causes him to bruise easily. In fact, the president acknowledged applying makeup to his hands to obscure discoloration.

“His skin is so delicate that Pam Bondi, now his attorney general, caused his hand to bleed when she nicked him with her ring while giving him a high-five at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee,” the article noted......

Stepping back, the president’s comments were hardly out of character. Throughout his decadelong political career, Trump has repeatedly expressed his disdain for science and medical evidence on everything from the climate crisis to vaccines to Covid-19 treatments, so it stands to reason that Mr. Inject Disinfectants is going to prioritize his superstitions and baseless assumptions about “nice, thin blood” over the recommendations of those who know what they’re talking about.

The trouble is, this is the same president who believes he has the credibility and expertise needed to give the public guidance on, among other things, how much Tylenol to take and what child vaccination schedules should look like.

In other words, Trump’s comments to the Journal weren’t just important in their own right, they were also a timely reminder to the public that his judgment on matters related to health are better left ignored.

[Jbraybarten]

1. He keeps bragging about multiple cognitive tests... as if having multiple is remotely normal...

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. Trump pushes back amid scrutiny over his health

President Donald Trump insisted he is in good health in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, saying Friday that he had “aced” a cognitive exam.

Trump pushes back amid scrutiny over his health

— MS NOW (@ms.now) 2026-01-03T02:51:45.836Z

https://www.ms.now/news/trump-pushes-back-amid-scrutiny-over-his-health

President Donald Trump declared in a social media post Friday that he was in “perfect” health, a day after The Wall Street Journal published an interview with him in which he pushed back on scrutiny about his age and fitness.

Trump, 79, is the oldest person to have been elected president. During the interview with the Journal, he dismissed public concerns about his age and health and expressed irritation that the topic keeps coming up. The article mentioned Trump’s bruised hands — which he said is a result of taking a higher dose of aspirin — his hearing and his limited sleep, though he said he still has plenty of energy that he attributed to his “good genetics.”

In the lengthy article, Trump denied that he falls asleep during White House events, adding he has trouble sleeping some nights and usually functions on limited hours of sleep.

“Sometimes they’ll take a picture of me blinking, blinking, and they’ll catch me with the blink,” Trump said about images that show his eyes closed.

The president has appeared to nod off during several events, including at a Cabinet meeting last month in which he appeared to battle to stay awake. In November, Trump seemed to struggle to keep his eyes open in the Oval Office during an event announcing price cuts for weight loss drugs......

Beyond the president’s physical health, the article mentions Trump’s habit of going from topic to topic in speeches and statements, sometimes making factual errors. Often recently Trump has veered off topic, and at times rambled, while speaking in public, including during an event in Pennsylvania aimed at highlighting affordability in the swing state and during his scattered speech in September in front of hundreds of U.S. military leaders at a base in Virginia.

But the president has insisted that he suffers no cognitive decline.

Trump’s former and current physician said they administered the Montreal Cognitive Assessment to Trump, in 2018 and 2025, respectively, and that he had scored “30 out of 30” on the assessments.