Trump's doctor grants interview, then 5 days later issues brazen threat to reporters if they publish it

pulse

December 21, 2016 5:44 PM

President-elect Donald Trump's doctor recently gave an interview to a health publication and then threatened to end the reporter's career if he published it.

Harold Bornstein.

STAT News sat down with Trump's doctor, Harold Bornstein, for three hours earlier this month for his first interview since the election.

Bornstein seemed unconcerned about the effect the stress of the presidency could have on Trump, who is in line to be the oldest any US president has been on Inauguration Day.

"If something happens to him, then it happens to him," Bornstein told STAT News. "It's like all the rest of us, no? That's why we have a vice president and a speaker of the House and a whole line of people. They can just keep dying."

Five days after the interview, STAT reported, Bornstein told the publication he didn't want any photos or an article from the interview to be published.

"I happen to have known the Sulzbergers for 50 years," Bornstein told STAT, referring to the family that publishes The New York Times. "I'm going to make sure you don't ever work again if you do this."

Bornstein, who has been Trump's doctor for more than 35 years, became a sensation when he wrote a letter saying Trump would be the healthiest president in history.

In the STAT interview, Bornstein said he had "never been able to find anything wrong with" Trump, aside from the fact that he's "a few pounds overweight." He also trashed Obamacare, saying "the rates went up, the services went down, the deductibles went way up."

And he had praise for Trump and his message of making America great again.

"Trump was elected, really, by people that are used to paying, the center of the country," Bornstein said. "The center of this country is the old Protestant ethic. You work, you get paid."

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