Donald Trump went to Arizona to rally support for Republicans ahead of the midterm elections. But during his appearance in Bullhead City on Wednesday, the president wandered into a remarkable discussion about his own medical care, a supporter in the audience, and what would supposedly happen if that person suffered a heart attack.
It began with Trump once again boasting about his performance on cognitive tests.
“Every time I do a physical, I take a mental test, and I’ve aced it,” he told the crowd, before turning his attention to the doctors who travel with him.
Then things took a strange turn.
Trump claimed that his presidential medical team would refuse to help anyone in the audience who became seriously ill, because their responsibility was to remain at his side.
“You know what they call ’em? Collateral damage,” he said.
And then he singled out someone in the crowd.
“If that person right over there, a friend of mine, he looks like shit, actually,” Trump said. “He looks like he’s ready to have a heart attack.”
Rather than moving on, the president imagined what would happen if the man actually collapsed.
Trump claimed his doctors would refuse to leave him, even if the supporter were dying. He described himself pleading for help, only to be told that the person would be considered “collateral damage.”
He also claimed that several ambulances accompanying him would not be available to anyone else.
There was no reported heart attack during the exchange. Trump was describing a hypothetical emergency, but his extraordinary account of how presidential medical personnel would respond quickly drew criticism.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a CNN medical analyst who previously served as Vice President Dick Cheney’s cardiologist, publicly challenged the president’s claims.
“This is completely untrue,” Reiner wrote, calling Trump’s remarks an insult to the White House Medical Unit.
Reiner said he had known numerous members of the unit over the years and was confident they would never dismiss a sick spectator as collateral damage. He also pointed to previous presidents who had called for medical assistance when audience members became ill.
There is an especially awkward contradiction in Trump’s account: Members of his own administration have helped people suffering medical emergencies at presidential events.
In March, when a woman collapsed during a Trump rally in Kentucky, Trump called for a doctor, and Dr. Mehmet Oz was among those who assisted her.
The Arizona remarks came during a campaign appearance intended to help Republicans heading into November’s elections. Instead, the president spent part of his speech describing an imaginary situation in which one of his own supporters could be left without medical attention.
Trump apparently intended to emphasize the extraordinary protection afforded to a president. What he delivered was a startling picture of a supporter being publicly mocked and then described as expendable.
And according to a physician familiar with the White House medical operation, the premise behind that story wasn’t even true.
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