MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Over the past year, President Trump has regularly appeared with makeup on the back of his right hand. He's also talked about getting an MRI, and he has appeared to nod off during meetings. Trump will turn 80 this year. He is the oldest person ever to have assumed the presidency. So all this has raised questions about his health. In a new interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump faced those questions head-on. NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is here to talk about it. Hey, Danielle.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey, Mary Louise.
KELLY: What did we learn from the Wall Street Journal interview?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, Trump addressed all those points you mentioned, like the makeup on the hand, which is often plainly visible. Trump said that it's because he bruises easily because of the aspirin he takes. On that note, we learned that he takes 325 milligrams per day of aspirin. Now, that's high. It's common for people to take a low dose of 81 milligrams as a blood thinner to ward off things like heart attacks and strokes. So Trump is taking four times that much. He said his doctors have told him to ease off a bit, but Trump said he doesn't want thick blood, as he put it, going through his veins.
KELLY: And what about the MRI he has talked about undergoing? That, of course, raised questions as to why he might have needed an MRI. Do we know?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, he now says it was, in fact, a CT scan. Trump apparently had just gotten the name of the test wrong, and his doctor said it was to rule out heart issues. Really, altogether in this interview, Trump comes off as pretty defensive. He's annoyed to be talking about his health, and he's insistent that he's in great health. Speaking of which, Trump, this morning, posted that he had aced a recent cognitive test. Now, he's talked about those types of tests for years as evidence that he's still sharp. I asked the White House today for more information on that test, and I haven't heard back.
KELLY: OK. I mean, it's hard not to notice that here is Donald Trump facing scrutiny for the exact same thing that he slammed Joe Biden for on the campaign trail - showing his age.
KURTZLEBEN: Exactly. Trump called Biden Sleepy Joe throughout the campaign and attacked him relentlessly for aging. Here was Trump at a rally making fun of Biden for sleeping on the beach during vacation...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: But he has an ability that I wish I had. He's able to fall asleep, stone cold out, in front of the media. They're taking a picture. Who the hell wants to sleep in front of the media? I wish I had the ability to sleep like that.
KURTZLEBEN: ...Which definitely emphasizes all the more that, yeah, Trump has now appeared to nod off a couple of times during long meetings. Now, for his part, Trump insisted to the journal that in those clips, he's just relaxing by closing his eyes.
KELLY: I mean, bottom line, Danielle, is there anything particularly worrying here? Given what we know about Trump's age, his health - anything worrying about his ability to do the job of president?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, you know, you do have those potential naps during meetings, but while there are those types of signs, it's just hard to talk about anybody's health without speculating. I mean, in the Journal's write-up, they note that Trump veers from topic to topic as he talks and also that he sometimes makes factual errors - their words. Those are signs that a lot of people associate with aging, and there's a lot of evidence of that because Trump just appears publicly a lot. Many days, he brings the press pool into the Oval Office. But with Trump, it's hard to say how much of that is really age-related, as he's done both of those things since even he first ran for president in 2016. He has long bragged about doing what he calls the weave, jumping from topic to topic. And as for factual errors...
KELLY: Right.
KURTZLEBEN: ...I mean, he does have flubs, which may or may not be age-related, but for his entire political career, he has said many lies and falsehoods. So really, if you zoom out, he has changed some over the years.
KELLY: Right.
KURTZLEBEN: That's no surprise, but he insists that his genes are keeping him healthy.
KELLY: NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben, thanks.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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