Trump’s health questioned after news conference but what do we know About JD Vance?

09 August 2024

During and after Donald Trump's "rambling, weird, scary," and “lie-filled” press conference Thursday afternoon, reporters, casual observers, political experts, and even his own former aide, expressed concern about the 78-year old's physical and mental health. But if the ex-president wins re-election, his running mate, JD Vance, could at some point become president, and the Trump campaign has not told America much if anything about the freshman U.S. Senator from Ohio's health.

"The surface layer of Trump cracked yesterday. Even his most ardent supporters could [see] someone unhinged and out of step with the times," warned former Trump communications director and former longtime friend Anthony Scaramucci, on Friday, after Thursday's presser.

As Thursday's event began, The New Yorker's award-winning journalist Susan Glasser remarked, "Trump looks ill." Later, at The New Yorker, Glasser wrote that Trump "looked uncommonly pale and tired." And referring to Vice President Kamala Harris, now the ex-president's Democratic opponent, Glasser asked: "Was it just me, or did he have trouble remembering her name?"

Attorney George Conway, who recently founded an anti-Trump PAC he named the Anti-Psychopath Political Action Committee, responded to video clips 0f Trump during his press conference with words including, "Deranged," "Whacko," and, "cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs."

None of this should come as a surprise.

A majority of Americans (51%) now say Donald Trump is too old to be President, up from 44%, according to a Morning Consult poll released Monday. Morning Consult also found just 48% say Trump is mentally fit, a drop of five points from 53%.

A CBS News/YouGov poll taken July 30-August 2 found Americans almost evenly split on whether or not Trump has the mental and cognitive health to be president: 51% yes, 49% no.

Donald Trump has never provided a full medical history to the American people, and has been remarkably opaque about medical events. As President, when he contracted COVID, only months later did the American people learn Trump was far more ill than the White House had acknowledged.

The New York Times in February of 2021, after Trump left the White House, reported, "new details about his condition and about the effort inside the White House to get him special access to an unapproved drug to fight the virus help to flesh out one of the most dire episodes of Mr. Trump’s presidency."

"The new revelations about Mr. Trump’s struggle with the virus also underscore the limited and sometimes misleading nature of the information disclosed at the time about his condition."

In April, before the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump's life at a Pennsylvania rally, for which Trump has never provided a full medical report from a physician who treated him at the hospital, The Washington Post reported, "Trump relies on a doctor who is a member of his golf club to vouch for his health."

"Former president has declined to release details about his own condition beyond a short letter from his physician, contrasting with Biden’s detailed report," The Post noted. "Instead of specifics like blood pressure and medications, [Trump's] letter had just three paragraphswithout specific numbers proclaiming that Trump was in 'excellent health' and had 'exceptional' cognitive ability. It did not disclose Trump’s weight."

As for Trump having taken a "bullet for democracy," as he has claimed, the most detailed medical information came from his disgraced and demoted former White House Physician, Congressman Ronny Jackson, who "was allegedly nicknamed the 'candyman' for handing out pills to staff without prescriptions," according to The Telegraph.

Aside from any potential age-related health issues, Trump faces the possibility of incarceration, having been convicted in New York of 34 felony charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced September 18. He also faces a possible state trial in Georgia and a possible federal trial in Washington, D.C.

And while the American people remain largely in the dark about Donald Trump's health, both physical and mental, (not to mention his possible incarceration) they also know little about the man who would sit in the Oval Office behind the Resolute Desk should the former president win re-election but become unable – for medical or judicial reasons – at some point to serve as President.

Indeed, that Morning Consult poll also found, “more than 1 in 3 voters (36%) — including 45% of independents — said it is unlikely the Republican nominee would be capable of serving a full four-year term in office if elected in November.”

Those concerns are not related to Trump’s health as much as his fitness for office.

“Among these voters who questioned whether Trump could finish a full second term, their fears are less likely to center on his fragility or longevity than they were about Biden, whose bid was toppled by questions about his age. Instead, they center on perceptions of how Trump will behave — similar to swing-state voters’ worry that Trump is ‘dangerous.'”

And yet, U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) has released no medical report on the state of his health. At 40-years old, he likely is in fine health, but the American people deserve to know from a credible physician.

As it is, Vance has not released his tax records, but if he is to become Vice President or President, Americans at least have a right to know if he is fit to serve.