President Donald Trump gave a primetime televised address on Wednesday evening that left many viewers baffled by his "manic" delivery. Reacting to the president's appearance and demeanor, one veteran cardiologist with a White House history expressed alarm and said Trump "looks unwell."
Dr. Jonathan Reiner currently serves as a medical analyst for CNN, and previously served as the personal cardiologist for the late former Vice President Dick Cheney for 30 years. Taking to X as the address played out, Reiner expressed grave concern for Trump's physical state.
“The pace of this address is manic," Reiner said. "I’m seriously concerned about the health of the president.
“No one should be happy to see the president like this," he added. "He looks unwell.”
Concerns about Trump's health have escalated over the course of his second term, with persistent bruises on his hand and reports of multiple MRI scans adding to the fire. Reiner himself has weighed in on those concerns in recent months, stressing during an October CNN appearance that MRIs are only conducted for specific reasons and sharing concern that the type of scans Trump received is unknown.
“We don’t even know what type of MR he had,” Reiner said. “We don’t know whether he had a head or brain MRI, we don’t know if he had an MRI of the chest or abdomen or prostate.
“They can be neurologic symptoms that prompt an MRI,” he added during a different appearance. “[It] could be back pain that prompts an MRI. There can be issues with the heart that would prompt an MRI. And for those reasons, the public should really be told, you know, why did the president undergo the test, what consultants he saw, and what was the result of the testing?”
When the White House later claimed that Trump had received a "preventative" MRI, Reiner was dismissive.
“There really is no preventative cardiac MRI,” Reiner said during another CNN appearance. “This is not a standard test for an 80-year-old man to undergo advanced imaging.
“This obviously was performed in response to some clinical concern, which is fine," he added. "Things happen to people as we all get older, and the president is almost 80. So, instead of this kind of evasive, almost laughable kind of note, just spell out what happened."
