Apology Pending... Not!

Hopefully, the frenzy can now die down and those who will try anything to destroy the Trump presidency will now move on to another slander. In a way, they already have. The “shithouse” caper, ginned up to keep certain segments of the Democratic base in line and motivated to vote, has already taken center stage.

Anyway, yesterday Trump’s physician, who was also Obama’s and Bush’s physician reported on the results of the president’s Friday physical exam. Since a flaky psychiatrist from Yale, one Bandy X. Lee had taken it upon herself to diagnose the president—to the chagrin and dismay of the American Psychiatric Association— we do well to examine the conclusions drawn by a physician who did examine the president.

The New York Times reports that Trump achieved a perfect score on a cognitive test:

President Trump’s White House physician said Tuesday that the president received a perfect score on a cognitive test designed to screen for neurological impairment, which the military doctor said was evidence that Mr. Trump does not suffer from mental issues that prevent him from functioning in office.

“I’ve found no reason whatsoever to think the president has any issues whatsoever with his thought processes,” Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, a rear admiral in the Navy and the White House physician, told reporters on Tuesday.

Mr. Trump’s first physical examination as president was highly anticipated, in part because of an increasing number of public questions about his sometimes erratic behavior during his first year in office. A book published this month, “Fire and Fury” by Michael Wolff, asserted that even Mr. Trump’s own advisers and associates questioned the president’s fitness for office.

Mr. Trump, the doctor said, asked for the cognitive test to answer his critics and attempt to quell questions about his mental abilities.

Over all, Dr. Jackson said, Mr. Trump’s health was “excellent,” with mostly normal results on a battery of tests and examinations. He said Mr. Trump, 71, has remarkably good cardiac health, probably because he does not smoke or drink alcohol.

We emphasize that while Bandy and her intrepid band of culture warriors saw clear signs of neurological impairment, the truth lay elsewhere. Asked for comment by the Times, Bandy responded that a test for neurological impairment is not the same as a test for psychiatric disorder, Trump’s physicians explained that he had spent a great deal of time talking with Trump and saw no signs of psychiatric illness. One notes that there is really no such thing as a test for psychiatric disorders.

Anyway, when it came to a Trump instance of slurred speech, the culprit was not neurological, but was Sudafed… which produces dry mouth:

Dr. Jackson said that the tests all were normal, leading him to believe that the slurred words might have been caused by Sudafed, a medicine for nasal congestion, that he prescribed for the president. He said Mr. Trump does not wear dentures “of any kind,” a popular theory on Twitter for the slurred words.

In response to speculation on television and elsewhere that the president has mental health problems, Dr. Jackson said, “In my opinion, that’s just tabloid psychiatry.”

The president’s most fierce critics are unlikely to be satisfied by Dr. Jackson’s pronouncements, but even top aides to former President Barack Obama were quick to praise Dr. Jackson, who also served as the White House physician to Mr. Obama.

I would like to say that those who have maligned Trump’s mental health owe him and the nation an apology. If you believe that these people have enough integrity to accept that they were wrong and that they owe us an apology, then you seriously misunderstand fanatics.