After a whiplash-inducing morning of mixed messages,on Wednesday opened a small window into some of the results from his most recent physical examination, revealing that he is overweight and takes a statin, a type of drug that lowers cholesterol.
Mr. Trump gave the quick synopsis on Dr. Mehmet Oz’s television show after the Republican presidential nominee’s aides had said that he would, then that he would not, broach the topic with the doctor on the show.
Mr. Trump, 70, discussed the checkup results as the campaign of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton
Over many months, Mr. Trump has sought to raise questions about the health of Mrs. Clinton, 68, and his supporters have asserted that she is hiding something about her health (her aides have denied this). But Mr. Trump has answered almost no questions about his own health over the last 15 months of his campaign, except for issuing a highly unusual doctor’s note.
On the other hand, the democrats have over the last few days seized on Mr. Trump’s weight as an issue, with Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader, taking note of it on Tuesday, and David Plouffe, a former senior adviser to President Obama, posting on Twitter that the Republican nominee would rival William Howard Taft in terms of portliness.
A Trump aide said that Dr. Oz, who focuses heavily on obesity, declared Mr. Trump “slightly overweight” with a weight of 236 pounds (although earlier reports put his weight at 267 pounds.
Earlier this year, Mr. Trump’s doctor, Harold Bornstein, wrote an unusual, brief note that he later acknowledged to NBC was partly dictated by the candidate. In that note, Mr. Bornstein described Mr. Trump as in impeccable health, and also said that he had lost 15 pounds over the previous 12 months.