Trump offers quick rundown of medical exam on ‘Dr. Oz’

PHOTOGRAPHER: The New York Times

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, exits the stage after speaking at a campaign event at the Seven Flags Event Center in Clive, Iowa, Sept. 13, 2016.

After a whiplash-inducing morning of mixed messages, Donald Trump on Wednesday gave a small window into some of the results from his most recent physical examination in a taped appearance with television celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz.

The quick run-through of results, which Trump is said to have given to the doctor to read from a piece of paper, came after the Republican presidential nominee’s aides had said he would, and then that he wouldn’t, broach the topic with the celebrity doctor on the “Dr. Oz Show.”

A person close to Trump would not discuss specifics of what he said on the syndicated show, which was taped in Manhattan and is to be broadcast on Thursday.

Trump, 70, discussed the results as the campaign of his rival, Hillary Clinton, was expected to release some details of her own latest examinations after her recent bout of pneumonia.

Over many months, Trump has sought to raise questions about the health of Clinton, 68, and his supporters have asserted that she is hiding something about her health (her aides have strenuously denied this). But Trump has answered almost no questions about his own health over the last 15 months of his campaign, except for issuing a highly unusual doctor’s note.

So the appearance on Dr. Oz’s show, announced last Friday, had been anticipated as a potential breakthrough, as Trump’s aides had said that over the next few days he would release results from a physical examination taken last week.

Dr. Oz said he had also invited Clinton to appear on the show.

A cardiothoracic surgeon by training, Dr. Oz has a large female viewership, one reason the Trump campaign chose him as an outlet.

Famous thanks to Oprah Winfrey, who knighted him “America’s Doctor,” Dr. Oz, who has worked at some of New York’s top hospitals, has a large and devoted fan base. He has been praised for focusing on lifestyle choices and for his ability to explain medical concepts in an easy-to-grasp manner.

He has also been criticized for questionable assertions over the course of his television career, and sometimes speaks in the same type of hyperbole that Trump employs and that the medical profession generally rejects.