From Tax Returns To Medical Records–Trump’s Veil Of Secrecy (Video)

Perhaps intimidation was an effective coercion tactic when Donald Trump was a reality show, Manhattan real estate mogul.

We can’t expect much to change now that he is President of the United States. After all, he promised to run the country like his business.

But as president his actions are no longer clandestine.

With that being said, having his bodyguard raid his former personal doctor’s office is probably something he could have gotten away with before 2016.

But not now.

The president’s former physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, told NBC News that Trump bodyguard, Keith Schiller, along with Trump Organization Chief Legal Officer Alan Garten, and another “large man,” burst into the doctor’s office the morning of Feb. 3, 2017–weeks into Trump’s tenure–and left with Trump’s medical records and lab test results.

Describing the incident as a “raid” that left him feeling “raped, frightened and sad,” Bornstein said:

“They must have been here for 25 minutes or 30 minutes. It created a lot of chaos.”

Behind the raid was none other than now-former White House physician and disgraced Veterans’ Affairs director nominee Ronny Jackson, who authored a letter authorizing the release of Trump’s records. Bornstein, though, states he never received it.

What could have prompted such an extreme, harrowing invasion of Dr. Bornstein’s office? Was it just a case of rightfully transferring the president’s records since he longer requires Bornstein’s services?

Days before the raid occurred, Bornstein reported to the New York Times that Trump takes Propecia, a drug for men with enlarged prostates and assists with hair growth.

The president severed ties with Bornstein after that.

The White House does not deny the records’ recovery; it does deny the recovery’s characterization as a “raid,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed during a news briefing on Tuesday.

NBC’s Hallie Jackson asked  Sanders:

“Why did Keith Schiller, who was a White House employee at the time, go and take medical records from the president’s personal doctor last year?”

Sanders’ response:

“Ah, as is standard operating procedure for a new president, the White House medical unit took possession of the president’s medical records.”

Another reporter followed with:

“There are some today that are saying what happened with the president’s former personal doctor is a burglary, the way Keith Schiller busted in–”

He never got to finish because Sanders interrupted:

“I don’t know if ‘some’ — I think there is one, but not ‘some.’ Once again, it would be standard procedure for the president — a newly elected president’s medical records to be in possession by the White House medical unit, and that was what was taking place, is those records were being transferred over to the White House medical unit, as requested.” 

Dr. Bornstein compared the incident to the Watergate break in, adding:

“I couldn’t believe anybody was making a big deal out of a drug to grow his hair that seemed to be so important. And it certainly was not a breach of medical trust to tell somebody they take Propecia to grow their hair. What’s the matter with that?”

During the presidential campaign, Bornstein, in a letter, claimed Trump had “no significant medical problems in the past 39 years,” and would be “the healthiest individual elected to the presidency.”

Similarly, Dr. Ronny Jackson announced earlier this year:

“Some people have just great genes. I told the president that if he had a healthier diet over the past 20 years he might live to be 200 year old.”

Jackson also confirmed the president takes Propecia.

We know now, though, that Trump dictated Dr. Bornstein’s letter.

CNN reported:

“When Dr. Harold Bornstein described in hyperbolic prose then-candidate Donald Trump’s health in 2015, the language he used was eerily similar to the style preferred by his patient.
It turns out the patient himself wrote it, according to Bornstein.”

Bornstein told CNN on Tuesday:

“He dictated that whole letter. I didn’t write that letter. I just made it up as I went along.”

Trump doesn’t want us to see his tax returns. He apparently doesn’t want us to see his medical records either.

What could he be hiding?

NBC’s Heidi Przybyla and Steve Kornacki posed that very question.

Kornacki asked:

“Now we say how much do we know about the health of Donald Trump? We had this letter from the lawyer and we had this statement from Dr. Jackson in the White House. How much do we actually know?”

Przybyla responded:

“Really one of those irony is dead moments, Steve, considering how much fake — actual fake news was fanned about Hillary Clinton’s health during the campaign. As you rightly pointed out in the introduction there, Donald Trump did put out that letter which said he was astonishingly healthy. He was amazingly healthy. But in Hillary Clinton’s letter, she actually had real details. She shared with us her hypothyroidism, her seasonal allergies. I think we even got a look at her mammogram. Now to find out that this was fabricated or manufactured by the Trump campaign, the answer to your question is we really don’t know much that this doctor now is acknowledging that the president basically dictated it to him. At the time we were told they even had a limo waiting downstairs for the letter and it was done in about five minutes’ time.”

 

Image credit: pointsincase.com

Ted Millar is writer and teacher. His work has been featured in myriad literary journals, including Better Than Starbucks, The Broke Bohemian, Straight Forward Poetry, Caesura, Circle Show, Cactus Heart, Third Wednesday, and The Voices Project. He is also a contributor to The Left Place blog on Substack, and Medium.