Trump, not his doctor, wrote glowing 2015 letter on his health, physician now says
Harold Bornstein, who was Donald Trump's personal doctor for decades, acknowledges that his over-the-top statement about Trump's health in 2015 was not written by him — but by the then-presidential candidate.
Bornstein's admission to CNN on Tuesday comes as he also said publicly for the first time to NBC News that Trump's one-time bodyguard and two others "raided" his office in New York last year and took all his medical files on the president.
It was a sudden return to public view for the New York doctor, notable for his shoulder-length hair and round eyeglasses, who first surfaced in December 2015 with his hyperbolic description of Trump's health during the presidential campaign.
Among the key passages in a letter Bornstein provided the news media three years ago: "His physical strength and stamina are extraordinary. If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."
At the time, Bornstein told reporters that he wrote the letter hastily while treating patients but made it clear he was the author.
The letter did not include a lot of medical information on the candidate beyond noting Trump's blood pressure of 110/65, described by Bornstein as "astonishingly excellent." It claimed Trump had lost 15 pounds over the preceding year. And it described his cardiovascular health as "excellent."
In his remarks to NBC News regarding his confiscated files, Bornstein said he felt "raped, frightened and sad" as three "large men" came into his New York office to collect the president's files in February 2017, causing "chaos" in the medical office.
Bornstein said the three men included Alan Garten, a top lawyer at the Trump organization who serves as its chief legal officer, and former Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller, who at the time was serving as the White House's director of Oval Office operations. (Schiller resigned from his post in September.)
A third unidentified man accompanied the men, Bornstein told NBC.
Along with taking the records, Bornstein said the men asked for him to remove a framed photo he had with Trump, which was hanging in the waiting room of his office.
Bornstein claims he wasn't given a form authorizing the release of the records and called it a "raid." He said they took the only copies of Trump's charts and also records of visits when the president would use a pseudonym, NBC reported.
The White House confirmed Tuesday that its medical unit "took possession of the president’s medical records." White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called it "standard operating procedure."
Bornstein said the incident happened two days after a story was published in The New York Times, in which he admitted to prescribing Trump a hair-growth treatment. After the story ran, Trump cut ties with him and with that, his aspirations of becoming the president's White House physician were dead.
"I couldn't believe anybody was making a big deal out of a drug to grow his hair that seemed to be so important," Bornstein told NBC. "And it certainly was not a breach of medical trust to tell somebody they take Propecia to grow their hair. What's the matter with that?"
He said he decided to speak out about the episode after seeing the accusations about Ronny Jackson, who was Trump's physician at the White House and former nominee to head the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Jackson later withdrew from consideration after a barrage of criticism, first about his qualifications to lead the agency, then about his conduct as a doctor. Both current and former colleagues accused him of improperly dishing out opioids, drinking on the job and fostering a hostile work environment.
Contributing: John Fritze, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump doctor says Trump wrote his own glowing 2015 letter on health
