Donald Trump medical checkup 'went exceptionally well' as doctor says he is in 'excellent health'
Donald Trump's first presidential medical checkup "went exceptionally well," according to White House physician, Dr Ronny Jackson.
The President is in "excellent health, and I look forward to briefing some of the details on Tuesday," he said in a short statement.
The released details of the physical exam could finally lay to rest a mystery surrounding Mr Trump's exact height.
Two months before the 2016 election Mr Trump released a five-paragraph letter from his longtime personal physician Dr Harold Bornstein.
The letter declared him in excellent health and listed his height as 6ft 3ins.
A few months later his current New York driving licence was made public, and recorded him as 6ft 2ins, an inch shorter.
Several reports have since described how Mr Trump gets "irritated" when media outlets use the lower height.
According to the recently published book Fire and Fury, by author Michael Wolff, the listing of Mr Trump as 6ft 3ins in 2016 was done to avoid him "having a body mass index that would label him as obese".
Body mass index (BMI) is a measurement combining height and weight.
The book has been dismissed as "tabloid trash" by the White House.
Here is Trump's last "physical" against Obama's in 2016. Trump insists he is in fact 6'3 but his drivers license says otherwise and he looks shorter than Jeb Bush (who is 6'3) in pictures.
This also makes it hard to accept his previous physical at face value. pic.twitter.com/OFnmMT35tU— Gabe (@bdylan234) December 28, 2017
Mr Trump's medical checkup was expected to last up to seven hours at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland.
It was conducted by White House physician Dr Ronny Jackson, who performed President Barack Obama's last several annual physical examinations. Other specialists will also take part.
The process is entirely voluntary for presidents and Mr Trump himself will determine what information to make public from it.
The results are not expected to relate to his mental health, and the White House said he would not be undergoing a psychiatric exam.
According to Dr Bornstein's report in 2016 Mr Trump weighed 236 pounds, his blood pressure was 116/70, and his heart, liver, thyroid, and colon were normal.
In a previous letter in 2015 Dr Bornstein said Mr Trump would be the "healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency".
The results from Walter Reed are expected to shed light on how a year in office has affected Mr Trump's weight and blood pressure.
Past presidents have released detailed information relating to aspects of their health including vision, cardiac rhythms, the gastrointestinal system, and motor functions.
Former president Bill Clinton allowed the release of information that he suffered from haemorrhoids. John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon both allowed it to be known that they took medication for anxiety.
It is known that Mr Trump has in the past taken medication for his cholesterol, a low-dose aspirin for heart attack prevention, Propecia to treat male-pattern baldness, and antibiotics for the skin condition rosacea.
Speaking on Thursday, Mr Trump said: "It (the checkup) better go well, otherwise the stock market will not be happy."
George Annas, an academic at the Boston University School of Public Health, said Mr Trump would probably not release any information "unless it’s something that makes him look good".
