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Snicker all you want, but Trump’s appearance on Oz was a triumph

Clinton wanted to make this election about Trump's fitness to lead. Now thanks to Trump's silly TV stunt, all anyone can talk about is their physical health

John Ibbitson

This article was published more than 7 years ago. Some information may no longer be current.

He doesn't need much sleep, he hates vacations, he shrugs off stress, and "I don't get much with the colds," Donald Trump told Dr.

Mehmet

Oz on Thursday, as this beyond-strange election campaign turned on the question of who has the stamina to endure the White House.


Hillary Clinton wanted to make this election a referendum on Mr. Trump's fitness to lead. She wanted voters to focus on his vows to aggressively screen Muslim immigrants, to forcibly deport Latinos, to wage a trade war against China, to tear up sacrosanct treaties of trade and defence, to build a wall. It worked. For most of August, she led in the polls.

Mr. Trump responded by claiming the Democratic candidate was trying to hide the fact she was too weak and frail to lead. (Add misogyny to his list of offences.) Most commentators dismissed the claim as a fact-free conspiracy theory.

And then Ms. Clinton, who is 68, stumbled and nearly fainted at the 9/11 commemoration Sunday, and her team acknowledged she was battling pneumonia. A New York Times poll this morning revealed this week's effects:

Mr. Trump, who is 70, played cat-and-mouse all week with his own medical records, which up until now he has kept from the public. Finally, in a theatrical display, he handed the results of a recent checkup to Dr. Oz on the celebrity physician's TV program, which aired Thursday.

At 6 feet 3 inches and 236 pounds, Mr. Trump is overweight, like seven-in-10 American men. Apart from golf, he doesn't exercise. But as Dr. Oz read through the letter provided by Mr. Trump's personal physician - blood pressure normal, cholesterol normal - Dr. Oz pronounced himself satisfied, even raising his eyebrows in surprised approval at the business mogul's testosterone level.


Dr. Oz concluded:

Of course it was all stage-managed, but politically it did the trick.

This doesn't change the fact that Mr. Trump plays fast and loose with the truth and that he refuses to release important information. (What's next? Showing his tax returns to a famous TV accountant?) But the fact is that surfing the health issue provided Mr. Trump with the best week he's had since the July conventions.

For her part, Ms. Clinton returned to the campaign trail, Thursday, flying to an event in North Carolina. But as she walked to the back of the plane to chat with reporters, it was hard not to hold your breath, wondering if she would need to steady herself.


She didn't; Ms. Clinton looked and sounded fine, if a little low key, both then and at the rally in Greensboro, N.C., that afternoon.

She still clings to a slender lead in most polls. Mr. Trump still carries the luggage he was dragging behind him before her health scare. There are three debates and 52 days between now and the election.

But Ms. Clinton's overwhelming priority, between now and the first candidates' debate on Sept. 26, must be to lay the issue of her stamina to rest. The presidency hinges on it.