Trump faces presidential fitness test

Donald Trump is getting his first medical check-up since taking office, after pushing back against suggestions he is mentally unfit for the US presidency.

US President Donald Trump is getting his first medical check-up since taking office, a head-to-toe exam as questions swirl about the health and fitness of the oldest person ever elected to the nation's highest office.

In advance, the 71-year-old president pushed back vigorously against suggestions he is mentally unfit, declaring himself "a very stable genius."

Trump raised concerns last month when he slurred some words on TV. When asked about it, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said questions about Trump's health were "frankly, pretty ridiculous" and blamed his slurred speech on a dry throat, "nothing more than that".

More questions have been raised in the weeks since, given the tone of some of his tweets and the reported comments of some of the people who deal with him day to day.

Some were recently published in a new book about his first year, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, by Michael Wolff, which Sanders denounced as "complete fantasy" for its portrayal of Trump as undisciplined, child-like and in over his head.

Trump was 70 when he was inaugurated a year ago to handle the 24/7 demands of being president. Ronald Reagan, who served two terms, was a year younger when he took office in 1981.


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Source: AAP



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