Recently, Donald Trump made quite a few waves and raised quite a few suspicions and speculations when he declared that before committing to a 2024 presidential run, he would have to consider the state of his health.
In his recent Washington Post interview, the one-term, twice-impeached former president said, “You always have to talk about health. You look like you’re in good health, but tomorrow, you get a letter from a doctor saying come see me again. That’s not good when they use the word again.”
Now, communications consultant Arick Wierson has completed his own analysis of Trump’s comments on his health in an opinion piece for NBC News Opinion, and he feels there could be more to Trump’s remarks than what we see or realize on the surface. In his opinion, what the former president said could actually be a big indicator that Trump has some serious doubts when it comes to running again in 2024 — something he regularly hints at among crowds of his own people and fans but has yet to commit to.
This isn’t the first time that Donald Trump has made similar eyebrow-raising comments about his health, but Wierson argues that his recent uptick in attention to the matter shouldn’t be ignored.
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“This offhand comment — one that apparently came as something of an afterthought toward the end of the interview — sent shock waves through the political establishment,” the analysis reads. “He has often been deliberately misleading and even dishonest about his health, and for him to proactively bring it up as a potential reason not to run in 2024 is something of a watershed moment. But Trump being Trump, what you see or hear is not exactly what you get, and it would be ill-advised to take his comments at face value.”
Wierson feels there are three possible explanations for Trump’s uptick in attention and public mentions of his health.
First and foremost, Donald might actually be dealing with serious health issues. “Trump, who would be 78 by the time he would take office if he were to win another term, has had access to the world’s best health care. But his advanced age, his 2020 bout with the coronavirus, coupled with obesity, and what has been well documented as a generally unhealthy lifestyle may be catching up with him. There has also been rampant speculation that he may even be in the early stages of dementia.”
If the former guy’s actual, physical and mental health isn’t at the core of his remarks then Wierson thinks it may boil down to the former guy trying to weasel his way out of a presidential run he doesn’t actually want to do. The analysis also notes the possibility that Donald Trump is throwing up a “trial balloon” in an effort to gauge which Republicans would gear up to try to snatch Trump’s place if he doesn’t throw his hat into the ring at all. “Do GOP heirs-apparent such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pounce on what might be construed as Trump’s weakness to gain an advantage ahead of 2024, or do they rally behind the former president in a show of continued loyalty?”
“Either way, it will be interesting to see whether he returns to his health issues in the run-up to 2024,” the analysis concludes.
Trump made very similar comments about his health in connection to a potential 2024 run back in 2021, during an interview with Real Clear Politics, when he was asked what could potentially prevent him from running again in the next presidential election.
“Well, one reason could be your health. You get a call from your doctor and that’s the end of that,” Trump said at the time. “That stuff happens; you hope it doesn’t. I just had a medical, just had great result. You never know, there are many things can happen; politics is a crazy world. It is a big commitment of you, your children, your wife and your family.”
The whole thing is just odd, honestly, as Trump made rather contradictory remarks about his health in his recent endorsement of Mehmet Oz — AKA, TV’s “Dr. Oz” — in Pennsylvania’s Senate GOP primary, with Trump boasting, “He even said that I was in extraordinary health, which made me like him even more (although he also said I should lose a couple of pounds).”
I suppose we’ll find out for sure soon enough.
Read the full analysis here.
Featured image via screen capture
