Celebrating the Republican sweep of the 2024 election, President-elect Donald Trump praised allies and himself, including one comment in which he claimed to be one of the healthiest presidents in the White House, surpassing the fitness of former President Barack Obama.
During a black-tie event in Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, Trump thanked his closest supporters, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom he nominated for secretary of Health and Human Services.
Discussing his health during the event, Trump spoke about former White House physician and current Texas Republican Representative Ronny Jackson, who, according to Trump, said he was healthier than Obama, among others.
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
The Claim
At a gala at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, November 14, 2024, Donald Trump spoke about Representative Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician for Barack Obama and Trump. Jackson also served in the White House Medical Unit during President George W. Bush‘s administration.
“They [the press] asked the doctor, he was up in the podium, ‘Who’s the healthiest?’ because he was the doctor for Barack Hussein Obama, Donald Trump, and he was a doctor for Bush also,” Trump said.
“They said, ‘Who’s the healthiest of them all?’ He said, ‘Without question, it’s Donald Trump.’
“And I said, ‘I like that guy.'”
The Facts
It wasn’t clear if Trump’s statement was a boast about being the healthiest president in history or healthier than Obama, and possibly Bush.
However, Jackson has never publicly said Trump was healthier than Obama or any other president. What Trump may have done is confuse Jackson’s comments with those of his personal physician, Harold Bornstein, in 2015.
Newsweek has contacted media representatives for Trump and Jackson via email for comment.
The occasion Trump referred to was in January 2018, when Jackson spoke to the press for an hour about Trump’s health.
The now-president-elect’s health had been a matter of speculation following the publication of journalist Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury. During the book’s tour, Wolff said that Trump’s aides had questioned the president’s mental health.
Jackson’s review of Trump’s health was glowing, telling reporters that “I told the president if he had a healthier diet over the last 20 years he might live to be 200” calling his overall health “excellent.”
Although Jackson gave a positive report on the president’s health, he did not comment on it relative to Trump’s predecessors.
That is where Trump may have confused Jackson’s comments with those of Bornstein, who in a statement released by the Trump campaign in 2015 said: “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
Jackson was asked by a reporter at the 2018 press conference whether he agreed with Bornstein’s assessment.
“I’m not gonna comment on that,” Jackson replied. “My job is to basically give you my assessment of President Trump today and I’m not gonna make any comparisons with presidents over the last 200 years.”
Newsweek has not found any public statements in which Jackson said Trump is or was healthier than Obama.
Bornstein later told CNN that the language used to describe Trump’s health was penned by Trump.
“He dictated that whole letter. I didn’t write that letter,” Bornstein said. “I just made it up as I went along. [Trump] dictated the letter and I would tell him what he couldn’t put in there.”
Although Jackson has not said it publicly, Trump claims Jackson has made the comparison privately.
At a campaign rally in Coralville, Iowa, in December 2023, Trump, referring to Jackson, said: “He was my doctor. He was Obama’s doctor, too, by the way.
“I said, ‘Who’s healthier?’ He said ‘Sir, there’s no contest.’ I won’t tell you the answer but you know the answer, OK? It was me.”
However, the annual medical exam conducted by Jackson suggested by at least some markers, that Obama was in better health when he left office compared to Trump about a year into his first term. For example, Trump’s body mass index was 29.9, just under the line between “overweight” and “obese,” while Obama’s BMI was 22.8.
Trump’s total cholesterol also rose from 169 in 2017 to 223; his level of so-called “bad” cholesterol also increased from 94 to 143. According to the NIH’s MedlinePlus, those numbers are “borderline high.”
The Ruling
False.
Texas Republican Representative Ronny Jackson, who was Trump and Obama’s White House physician, has not compared the two presidents publicly.
Trump may have confused Jackson’s statement with that of his personal physician, Harold Bornstein, who in 2015 wrote in a letter: “Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” Bornstein later told CNN that the letter was dictated to him by Trump.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team