What drugs is the White House physician on? And no, I don’t want any

benfell

Updates

  1. Originally published, January 18, 7:55 am.
  2. January 18, 5:13 pm:
    • Dana Milbank hits one out of the park. His opening line: “Examining the White House physician’s briefing on President Trump’s physical, I was alarmed — not about the president’s health, but the doctor’s.”[1] (Donald Trump)

Donald Trump

I have a new blog post up, entitled, “On the possibility of a President Pence.”

Dana Milbank captures a lot of the now-dubious doctor’s wording.[2] Read his column and ask yourself, when have you ever in your entire life heard a doctor speak like this? Milbank winds up pointing to sycophancy,[3] which would be at odds with the description we’ve been getting from a lot of places but most recently and perhaps most prominently from Stephen Bannon.[4] Milbank is, of course, correct to be alarmed[5] and I think it is possible for both Bannon and Milbank to be correct: They might be describing different people. Or at different times. Or a difference in what sycophants say to their masters and what they say behind their masters’ backs. Or all of the above. Or some combination of the above. Milbank points to a risk that White House workers might become sycophants,[6] but we are actually seeing it already, not only in the doctor’s words,[7] but as well as in the behavior of politicians and cabinet members.[8] These would be the same people who would be needed for a 25th amendment process of deposing Donald Trump.

Dana Milbank, “Is Trump’s doctor okay?” Washington Post, January 17, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-trumps-doctor-okay/2018/01/17/0d887f50-fbce-11e7-ad8c-ecbb62019393_story.html

Michael D. Shear and Gina Kolata, “Trump’s Physical Revealed Serious Heart Concerns, Outside Experts Say,” New York Times, January 17, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/us/politics/trump-physical-heart-health-cholesterol.html

Rhys Blakely, “Are Donald Trump’s test results fake news?” Times, January 18, 2018, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/times2/are-donald-trumps-test-results-fake-news-xxzgm6zxf

  1. [1]Dana Milbank, “Is Trump’s doctor okay?” Washington Post, January 17, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-trumps-doctor-okay/2018/01/17/0d887f50-fbce-11e7-ad8c-ecbb62019393_story.html↩
  2. [2]Dana Milbank, “Is Trump’s doctor okay?” Washington Post, January 17, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-trumps-doctor-okay/2018/01/17/0d887f50-fbce-11e7-ad8c-ecbb62019393_story.html↩
  3. [3]Dana Milbank, “Is Trump’s doctor okay?” Washington Post, January 17, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-trumps-doctor-okay/2018/01/17/0d887f50-fbce-11e7-ad8c-ecbb62019393_story.html↩
  4. [4]Alex Wayne and Jennifer Jacobs, “Trump Says Bannon ‘Lost His Mind’ After Leaving White House,” Bloomberg, January 3, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-03/trump-says-bannon-lost-his-mind-after-leaving-white-house↩
  5. [5]Dana Milbank, “Is Trump’s doctor okay?” Washington Post, January 17, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-trumps-doctor-okay/2018/01/17/0d887f50-fbce-11e7-ad8c-ecbb62019393_story.html↩
  6. [6]Dana Milbank, “Is Trump’s doctor okay?” Washington Post, January 17, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-trumps-doctor-okay/2018/01/17/0d887f50-fbce-11e7-ad8c-ecbb62019393_story.html↩
  7. [7]Rhys Blakely, “Are Donald Trump’s test results fake news?” Times, January 18, 2018, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/times2/are-donald-trumps-test-results-fake-news-xxzgm6zxf; Dana Milbank, “Is Trump’s doctor okay?” Washington Post, January 17, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-trumps-doctor-okay/2018/01/17/0d887f50-fbce-11e7-ad8c-ecbb62019393_story.html; Michael D. Shear and Gina Kolata, “Trump’s Physical Revealed Serious Heart Concerns, Outside Experts Say,” New York Times, January 17, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/us/politics/trump-physical-heart-health-cholesterol.html↩
  8. [8]Aaron Blake, “In Cabinet meeting, Pence praises Trump once every 12 seconds for three minutes straight,” Washington Post, December 20, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/12/20/in-cabinet-meeting-pence-praises-trump-once-every-12-seconds-for-3-minutes-straight/; Matthew Nussbaum, “Republicans shower Trump with praise at White House meeting,” Politico, January 4, 2018, https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/04/trump-republicans-white-house-praise-324975; John Wagner, “Praise for the chief: Trump’s Cabinet tells him it’s an ‘honor’ and ‘blessing’ to serve,” Washington Post, June 12, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/praise-for-the-chief–trumps-cabinet-tells-him-its-an-honor-privilege-blessing-to-serve/2017/06/12/ddd3919e-4fa4-11e7-91eb-9611861a988f_story.html↩

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