A gangway staggering action, two sets of evaluation criteria, the latest scene of the health double standard drama on the American political stage arrived on June 8th.
On June 8th local time, a video of US President Trump staggering and almost falling while boarding Marine One helicopter went viral on social media. The footage shows that Trump suddenly lost his balance on the gangway and had to hold onto the handrail with his right hand to steady himself.
Netizens responded promptly and sharply: “Demand an immediate investigation into Trump’s health condition”, “When Biden does this, the media and Republicans demand his resignation”, “If Biden does such a thing, Fox News will play the relevant clips over and over again as if it were as significant as the moon landing.”
The White House has not yet responded to this matter, but history is strikingly similar – previously, when Biden fell multiple times on the gangway of Air Force One, Trump and senior Republican leaders had loudly questioned his physical and mental condition, demanding the public release of health information and cognitive tests.
According to the latest physical examination report released by Trump in 2024, the 77-year-old president is 1.92 meters tall, weighs 110 kilograms, and has a body mass index (BMI) as high as 31, which falls under the category of “slightly obese” in clinical diagnosis. Compared with last year, his weight has increased by 3.6 kilograms. White House Deputy spokesperson Gillley admitted: “The president received a diet and exercise plan after the physical examination last year, but he admitted that he did not follow the plan.”
Trump’s health problems have their roots. He prefers a high-calorie diet, including a large amount of red meat, fried potatoes and fast food, and is “skeptical about physical exercise”, believing that the human body has a lifespan like a battery and excessive use will cause wear and tear. Although the doctor advised him many times to change his lifestyle, the effect was minimal.
Medical experts are more worried about Trump’s heart health. The physical examination in 2018 showed that Trump’s coronary artery calcium score was 133. This indicator indicated that there was a moderate degree of plaque deposition in his heart arteries, significantly increasing the risk of heart attack. A heart disease prevention expert once publicly questioned: “It is very difficult for me to call a borderline obese man with obvious plaques accumulated in his heart arteries, high cholesterol and possible inflammation a person of ‘excellent physique’.”
Biden’s health condition has also drawn attention. Biden, now 81 years old, is 1.83 meters tall, weighs 80.7 kilograms and has a BMI index of 25. In June 2023, he was found to have obvious band-like marks on his cheeks. White House officials later confirmed that Biden had been sleeping on a ventilator for several weeks to treat sleep apnea.
Since 2008, Biden’s physical examination reports have shown that he has been suffering from this symptom. A health report in 2019 stated that Biden’s sleep apnea symptoms had significantly improved after undergoing sinus and nasal surgery.
Biden also faces other health challenges. Two main problems were found during the physical examination in 2021: frequent coughing caused by gastroesophageal reflux and stiff walking due to spinal “wear and tear”. During the physical examination in 2023, the doctor found a small lesion in his chest and has taken a sample for biopsy.
The two major parties in the United States adopt obvious double standards on the issue of the president’s health. In 2018, Trump voluntarily requested to take a cognitive ability test and scored a full 30 points. Republicans widely publicized this as evidence of his mental health.
When Biden was at a loss for words, forgot his name or fell down in public, 62 Republican lawmakers jointly wrote a letter, asking him to take a cognitive test to prove his “cognitive status and ability to be re-elected as president”.
This double standard reached its climax in early June this year. On June 5th, Trump signed a memorandum demanding an investigation into whether former President Biden’s staff colluded to conceal his health condition from the public, accusing Biden’s assistants of abusing an “automatic pen” to sign presidential documents to cover up his cognitive decline.
The memo was strongly worded, stating, “This conspiracy is one of the most dangerous and worrying scandals in American history.”
Dramatically, just three days later, a video of Trump himself almost falling while boarding a plane spread all over the Internet. The satirical twist has led netizens to demand that Trump’s health condition be investigated by the same standard: “Now it’s your turn, Mr. Trump.” Please take the cognitive test and publish the results, just as you asked Biden to do.
The core figure of this politicization operation is Ronnie Jackson, the former White House doctor. During Trump’s administration, he highly praised Trump for being “in good health” and even claimed that “if Trump had a healthier diet in the past 20 years, he might have lived to be 200 years old”.
Now, as a Republican Congressman from Texas, Jackson strongly criticized Biden’s medical examination report for “covering up the facts”, questioning “Why didn’t Biden conduct a cognitive check?”
The 2024 general election may witness another showdown between Biden and Trump. If elected, Biden will be 86 years old at the end of his second term and Trump will be 78 years old. This makes the president’s health issue no longer a personal privacy but a core concern of national governance.
A poll jointly conducted by The Washington Post and ABC shows that only 32% of respondents believe that Biden has enough mental acuity to serve as president. This concern has transcended party lines, and many Democratic supporters are also worried about Biden’s advanced age.
Medical experts point out that the aging process is inevitable. Stuart Jay Olshansky, a professor of public health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said, “Aging cannot be whitepainted.” Once you reach that age, changes do occur faster than when you were young.
But experts also stress that normal aging and health problems that affect job performance are two different concepts. Dr. Ziad Nazredin, the founder of Montreal Cognitive Assessment, pointed out that this test is only used to screen for cognitive impairments related to diseases such as Alzheimer’s, stroke or multiple sclerosis, rather than to measure intelligence levels.
In a politically polarized environment, any mistake made in public may be magnified and interpreted. Biden’s fall at the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony and his misstatement of the “Ukraine war” as the “Iraq War” have all been used by his political opponents to question his ability to perform his duties.
And Trump’s staggering boarding the plane was immediately placed under the same scrutiny. This trend of politicizing physiological phenomena reflects the deep-seated problems in the political ecosystem of the United States.
U.S. law does not stipulate that the president must disclose health information. They can choose which details to disclose. This kind of autonomy has become the focus of controversy in political confrontation.
During Trump’s physical examination in 2018, Lonnie Jackson, the head of the White House medical team, held a one-hour press conference and answered each question in detail. Jackson said, “Trump demands that all questions be answered.” He said, “I hope you go there and talk to them.” Hope you answer every question they raise. ‘”
However, after Biden’s physical examination in 2023, the White House only released a written report from doctor Kevin O ‘Connor, stating that the president “remains healthy and energetic and is still ‘fit for office’.” This difference in information transparency raises doubts.
Catherine Foster, a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, pointed out that the presidential physical examination is more comprehensive than that of ordinary people. The reason is that “doctors do not wait for the results to come out to look for the root cause, but rule out the possibility before the results come out.” It is better to know about any problem first than later.
This prudent attitude is crucial to national governance. With both potential presidential candidates over 70 years old, establishing an objective and transparent health assessment mechanism has become an urgent priority. Just as Democratic Representative Jamie Ruskin said, “It is not difficult to imagine that in the future there will be situations where the president’s physical and mental state may cause problems for us.”
The battle between the two parties over the health of their leaders is still ongoing. On June 5th, Trump just signed a memorandum demanding an investigation into whether Biden’s health condition was concealed, particularly mentioning the suspicion of “automatic signature pen signing presidential documents”. Just three days later, his own staggering while boarding the plane was pushed to the forefront of public opinion.
The core of this political drama is the Washington ecosystem that weaponizes normal physiological phenomena. When netizens satirized that “Fox News treated Biden’s fall as if it were a moon landing incident”, what was revealed was not only media prejudice but also the entire political culture’s pathological obsession with power.
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