{"id":171049,"date":"2025-12-02T13:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T13:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/171049\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T13:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T13:12:08","slug":"trumps-health-comes-under-spotlight-as-president-hails-eternity-of-three-years-left-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/171049\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s health comes under spotlight, as president hails \u2018eternity\u2019 of three years left \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday, speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> found himself in Franklin, Tennessee, holding up a speaker phone broadcasting a live message from president Donald Trump<\/a> to gathered Republican<\/a> supporters. <\/p>\n

The occasion was designed to generate voter enthusiasm for Tuesday\u2019s special election for the vacant congressional seat left by Republican Mark Green, who resigned for a private sector role in June. Several polls have Aftyn Behn, a 36-year-old Democratic<\/a> candidate with a promising record in community advocacy and nomically the outsider, running Republican candidate Matt Van Epps dangerously close.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a majority of three,\u201d president Trump reminded the heartland.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to win this seat. We\u2019ve got you the largest tax cuts in history. I just want to thank everybody \u2013 I love Tennessee, one of my all-time favourite places. Tennessee must love me because we won by the biggest margins anybody has ever won by so that\u2019s cool. She hates Christianity, number two she hates country music. How the hell can you elect a person like that? Matt Van Epps is gonna be a fantastic congressman, he is going to represent you so well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson wore the consolatory grin of a schoolteacher who had brought to a roomful of antsy kids merely a message from Santa Claus instead of a full-blown visit from the big guy, sleigh bells and all. Trump\u2019s disembodied voice carried heft. But nothing compared to a visit from the real thing. <\/p>\n

The moment fed into a message delivered from the lectern of the White House press briefing room on Monday. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt made it clear that the administration took issue with a weekend report in the New York Times depicting Trump\u2019s all-too-human concessions to the ravages of time. The piece used research to offer a profile that suggested a significantly reduced domestic travel itinerary in the first year of his second term, compared with his first year as president, in 2017. It also reported that he had taken on a more demanding international schedule through 2025.<\/p>\n

Leavitt argued that the data used \u201ctook about one third of the president\u2019s daily calendar and daily schedule and said he\u2019s doing less than he did in his first term or that he might not be fit for the job\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is unequivocally false,\u201d she added before reading aloud a headline published in the New York Times from last year: \u201cBiden is doing 100 per cent fine after tripping while boarding Airforce One.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cSame outlet, same reporter, who wrote that president Trump is not fit for the job. Are you kidding me? You all see him every single day. He is the most accessible president in history. He is taking meetings around the clock.\u201d<\/p>\n

It should be emphasised that the New York Times piece nowhere states that Trump \u201cis not fit for the job\u201d. Much as the Republicans are now dogged by the inflation stick that helped to sink the Biden\/Harris re-election ticket, Donald Trump is finding himself increasingly judged by the same scrutiny of ageism that ultimately proved catastrophic for Biden.<\/p>\n

Katie Rogers, the New York Times reporter who wrote the piece, has covered Trump\u2019s first term and the Biden administration, and responded to Leavitt\u2019s critique on Monday night on CNN. \u201cMy immediate response is that I think this White House know how headlines work and those headlines were taking quotes from press secretaries and also the White House physician at the time. Those aren\u2019t editorialising the president\u2019s [Biden\u2019s] health. Another point of fact is that president Trump and his physicians have not always been upfront about the health issues he has faced \u2013 case in point, he was much sicker with the coronavirus than the public knew at the time in 2020. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference right now is that his aides are under immense pressure to present a vigorous, this-president-has-done-any-president-ever image to the public and they are under pressure from him to do that. There is political pressure on him. The economy is showing signs of incredible stress and that all comes to [a] head in a president who is very upset behind the scenes and is again wondering much as he did in the first term why people aren\u2019t defending him.\u201d <\/p>\n

There is a legitimacy to Karoline Leavitt\u2019s general contention in that few world leaders, anywhere, put themselves in front of live, unregulated broadcast media platforms as regularly or for as long as Trump. The indefatigability of the 79-year-old has become an essential part of the second-term mythos: that he never stops, that he has boundless energy. Regular White House correspondents from both liberal and conservative outlets have at times bemoaned the fact that Trump never seems to sleep on the overnight Air Force One journeys he has undertaken this year. <\/p>\n

\"WhiteWhite House press secretary Karoline Leavitt took issue with a weekend report in the New York Times depicting Trump\u2019s concessions to the ravages of time. Photograph: Doug Mills\/The New York Times <\/p>\n

Trump himself habitually compares his stamina and fondness for long, unscripted speeches against Joe Biden\u2019s rare and curated public appearances and offers an often vicious running commentary on his predecessor\u2019s mental acuity. Many US media outlets have this year acknowledged that their scrutiny of Biden was not as robust as it might have been \u2013 ironically one of the reasons why Trump may find himself under a more exacting spotlight in his second term. <\/p>\n

The White House administration would argue that the spotlight on Trump\u2019s energy belongs to the generally hostile and critical coverage of his presidency by many media outlets. On Monday, it released the summary of Trump\u2019s recent MRI scan written by his physician, Sean Barbarella. The paragraph reported that overall, Trump\u2019s \u201ccardiovascular system shows excellent health\u201d and that \u201ceverything evaluated is functioning within normal limits with no acute or chronic concerns\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an assessment that would reassure the loved ones of many a 79-year-old retiree. But Trump is less than one year into the gruelling presidential schedule and his health is of general concern to the people, 74 million of whom voted against him last November. The constant comparisons with Joe Biden will soon lose relevance now that the 46th president has retreated from public life. Next year\u2019s calendar is likely to include a vigorous circuit of the rallies that proved such a vital part of Trump\u2019s comeback from political isolation. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the administration will keep an anxious eye on the Tennessee 7th district results on Tuesday night. The area runs from the northern Alabama border through steadfastly Red rural terrain but incorporates the Democratic strongholds of Nashville and Clarksville, the city that may tip the result definitively. Some polls have Aftyn Behn running the Republican candidate within two percentage points in a seat the Republicans carried by 22 points last time around. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it means they are desperate,\u201d Behn said of the planned Republican telethon last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care who you voted for, I don\u2019t care what political party you belong to but if you\u2019re upset about the cost of living and the chaos of Washington, then I\u2019m your candidate. I think it means they\u2019re desperate and fraught with the onslaught of attack ads against me. The only reason they are pulling out all the stops is that they don\u2019t have a plan to tackle the healthcare issue and the affordability crisis. I see their telethon town hall and I raise the 10,000 doors we are going to knock this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donald Trump, meanwhile, spent Monday afternoon at a closed event speaking to guests at the \u2018first White House Christmas party\u2019. Video snippets released show him behind a lectern whose pulpit was supported by a gold spread-winged eagle. Trump, in the opulent surrounds, seemed energised by the occasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great honour to be your president,\u201d he told them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gonna do a fantastic job. You know, we have a little more than three years left. And three years for Trump is an eternity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Monday, speaker Mike Johnson found himself in Franklin, Tennessee, holding up a speaker phone broadcasting a live…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[969,42,43,16621,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-171049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-republican-party","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}