WASHINGTON: Donald Trump is expected to remain physically fit for the duration of his presidency and has “no cognitive issues whatsoever”, according to full results from his first medical examination released on Tuesday.

Trump’s critics have openly questioned his mental health, and an explosive book on his presidency published earlier this month described aides as having doubts about his fitness for office.

“All data indicates the president is healthy and will remain so for the duration of his presidency,” doctor Ronny Jackson told a White House briefing following last week’s physical, which determined the 71-year-old to be in “excellent” health. “He has incredible genes and that’s the way God made him.”

Jackson said Trump, who has recently faced a swirl of speculation about his mental fitness, had himself requested a cognitive test in which he performed “exceedingly well”.

“I think he saw doing the physical as an opportunity to put some of that to rest,” Jackson said. “And I think he wasn’t the least bit concerned that he had anything to hide.”

The screening was carried out using a test called the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, on which Trump scored 30/30, Jackson said.

Jackson gave the president’s vital statistics as follows: height six feet three inches, weight 108 kilograms, resting heart rate 68, blood pressure 122/74.

Trump will be making some changes to his diet and exercise in an effort to lose weight.

“I think a reasonable goal over the next year or so is to lose 10 to 15 pounds. We talked about diet and exercise a lot. He’s more enthusiastic about the diet part than the exercise part, but we’re gonna do both,” said Jackson. “There’s a gym upstairs and we’ll get that set up to his specifications and we’ll see how that goes.”

Heart rate, blood pressure and cardiac output were all normal in response to exercise, while motor function and sensory system were also normal, Jackson said of Friday’s exam at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre.

“He has incredible cardiac fitness at this point in his life and I think a large part of that is due to the fact he has had a life of abstinence from tobacco and alcohol,” Jackson said.

Long-running questions about Trump’s fitness for office were given new fuel by Michael Wolff’s White House expose in which staff expressed concern about Trump repeating himself.

Wolff expounded further in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show, saying: “One hundred percent of the people around him” question Trump’s fitness for office.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2018