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With Donald Trump now approaching 1000 days into his presidency there has been a steadily building international consensus that he is clearly suffering from some degree of mental disturbance, with members of the American Psychiatric Association going as far as to describe it as “malignant pathological narcissism”. In the course of the past month, after the publication of a whistleblower’s report accusing Trump of criminally extorting the government of Ukraine to collect dirt on his principal political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and the ensuing public congressional investigation, a new and worrying dynamic has begun to dominate Trump’s public behavior. In the course of nearly two weeks of sworn testimony of U.S. diplomats, White House functionaries and even a member of Trump’s cabinet before the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives, the president’s daily public statements have become increasingly shrill and, frankly, aggressively irrational evidently due to the increasing stress the devasting testimony of the witnesses is putting on him.

And then it happened: on Saturday, the 16th of November at 2:30 pm., Trump’s armored limousine and two escort vehicles were brought to the back entrance of the White House. Trump, slightly bent over and holding a large manila envelope exited the White House and departed at high speed in his small motorcade in the direction of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland – 18 kilometers away. Reporters observing this activity, were ordered by White House Officials not to report the event until Trump’s arrival at the hospital, catching the entire medical staff there by complete surprise. Four hours later Trump was returned to the White House without further explanation. All of this touched off a flurry of wild speculation in the U.S. media, until the White House broke its suspicious silence at 10:30 pm. On Monday the 18th of November with an unsigned memorandum from the White House physician, Sean P. Conley, D.O. explaining that the president went for a “planned interim checkup as part of the primary preventative care he receives throughout the year… the President has not had any chest pain, nor was he evaluated or treated for any urgent or acute issues. Specifically, he did not undergo any specialized cardiac or neurologic evaluations.” “Considering, he is in excellent health.” Are we to accept this opinion from a man who works for a president who has been caught in 13,500 lies so far? Number one: Sean Conley is a D.O. – a doctor of osteopathy, the approximate equivalent of a chiropractor – or as we would say in Mexico: a huesero! As a matter of fact, except for the State of Yucatán, he would not be permitted to practice in Mexico! And secondly: The White House is equipped with a fully staffed medical clinic, capable of performing even complex surgical procedures. And, thirdly: Conley’s rationalizations for this apparent emergency visit to the medical center just don’t add up: Given what we know about his state of physical health – he is 73 years old, morbidly obese at 150 kilos and a height of 184 cm. giving him a body mass index of 30.4. His daily diet consists of McDonalds Big Macs, French fries and interminable cans of Coca Cola. In his paranoia, he does not trust the White House kitchen staff! In 2018 he underwent a coronary calcium CT scan which resulted in a score of 133, (anything over 100 implies the presence of heart disease) which means he clearly has a form of heart disease and is at moderate risk of having a heart attack in the next two to four years. His high daily dose of Rosuvastatin indicates a worrisome cholesterol level in his blood, which is not surprising considering his daily intake of fast food.

So, how are we to interpret the present state of Donald Trump’s health? Most likely, the stress of the impending impeachment trial and the increasingly damning evidence against him, are now causing psychosomatic stress symptoms – which would seem to be confirmed by 1) anonymous sources inside Walter Reed Hospital, that Trump was complaining of chest discomfort, 2) the unsolicited opinion of Dr. Conley that “he did not undergo specialized cardiac evaluations” and 3) the disappearance of Trump from public view between Saturday and the following Wednesday, November 29th.

Did he, perhaps, suffer a nervous breakdown which could put him at risk of a stress-related fatal myocardial infarction in the near future? One can only speculate…but the truth is that sometimes we can expect all kinds of tricks to divert attention. It will not be the first or the last time that a government or a public official tries to change the national conversation especially when there are serious problems such as impeachment. It could be the beginning of a drama in which Trump is planning to leave office for a probable or not extremely serious medical diagnosis and avoid an otherwise outrageous departure.