A physician believes President Donald Trump may have secretly suffered from a stroke, pointing to three possible clues in the president’s movements, use of medication, and speech patterns.
Writing in The New Republic, journalist Timothy Noah took a deep dive into Trump’s health, citing Dr. Bruce Davidson, a professor at Washington State University’s medical school. Davidson argued that a stroke affecting the left side of Trump’s brain could explain weakness on his right side.
Davidson pointed to the first clue: Trump’s gait and hand movements. In a January appearance on The Daily Beast Podcast, he described footage showing the president shuffling his feet and covering his right hand in his left.
He also made note of a video showing the right-handed president using his left hand to grip the railing while coming down the stairs of Air Force One.
Davidson said that combination of this evidence suggests possible weakness on Trump’s right side, which can occur after damage to the left side of the brain. However, those movements alone cannot establish their cause.
The second clue concerns Trump’s speech, which Davidson said the president had previously appeared to jumble words before showing improvement.
“That implicates Broca’s speech area, which is in the frontal left portion of the brain,” Davidson said during the podcast interview. Damage to the language or speech-controlling areas of the brain is a common symptom of a stroke.
His third clue was less visible and more about Trump’s revealing that he takes 325 milligrams of aspirin daily.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump explained that he used aspirin to thin his blood. Davidson, however, argued that the relatively high dose was consistent with treatment for preventing another stroke.
“When I read that, I said, well, he’s had a stroke,” Davidson told the podcast.
American Heart Association guidelines include aspirin doses ranging from 50 to 325 milligrams for certain patients who have already suffered an ischemic stroke.
Noah’s report also addressed Trump’s hand bruising, swollen ankles, and episodes of apparent daytime sleepiness, while noting the president has been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency.
The White House has already dismissed Davidson’s stroke theory as “false and slanderous allegations,” while Trump’s physician, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, declared in May, said the president was fully fit to perform his duties.
Davidson has said that a previous stroke would not automatically disqualify Trump from serving as president, and he wants more disclosure from the White House about his medical history.
For now, the suspected stroke remains the doctor’s theory, but he is among many medical experts expressing deep concern about the 80-year-old president’s health.