Donald Trump wildly boasted that he is in better physical shape than Barack Obama as he returned to the Midwest on Wednesday evening for his latest campaign rally in Coralville, Iowa.
Speaking soon after House Republicans successully voted to formalise their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, Mr Trump sought to draw a further line between himself and his successor in the White House by stressing what he claims to be his superior fitness for office.
“I just took a physical, you’ll be happy to hear,” the 77-year-old told his supporters.
“I passed with flying colours. And I took a cognitive exam. I said, ‘Doctor, give me anything you want. I want to take it.’”
Not content with bragging about having “aced” those tests, he claimed to be in better shape than former president Mr Obama, aged 62, by invoking the opinion of his former White House doctor Ronny Jackson turned Texas congressman.
“He was Obama’s doctor, too, by the way,” the ex-real estate tycoon reminded the crowd at the Hyatt Hotel.
“I said, ‘Who’s healthier?’ He said, ‘Sir, there’s no contest.’ I won’t tell you the answer, but you know the answer, okay? It was me.”
He went even further, quoting his old physician as saying: “‘If he didn’t eat junk food, he’d live to 200 years old.’ That’s my kind of a doctor.”
On whether he believed his advanced years could become an issue – as he has repeatedly insisted is the case for 81-year-old Mr Biden – Mr Trump said: “I’ll be the first to know. But I feel that right now I’m sharper than I was 20 years ago, and I don’t know why.
“It’s a funny thing, and it’s a very minor thing, but I’m a much better golfer than I was 10 or 15 years ago. It means something, you know? It means something in a certain way.”
The Republican 2024 hopeful has been keen to push claims he is in good health, after he has made a number of gaffes in recent public outings – from confusing Mr Biden and Mr Obama on one occasion to forgetting which city he was in during his last visit to Iowa.
During Wednesday’s speech, Mr Trump also rebuked the state’s Governor Kim Reynolds for endorsing his rival Ron DeSantis and mocked Mr Biden’s son Hunter Biden after he refused to appear before the GOP-led impeachment inquiry behind closed doors hours earlier.
Hunter Biden had offered to testify in a public hearing but Republicans refused.
The president’s son responded by taking to the steps of the Capitol to rebuke the “Maga Republicans” as “shameless” and criticise them for persecuting him and his family for cheap political gain.
“Did you see Hunter today, right?” Mr Trump gloated on stage. “He went to the wrong place. He went to the Senate instead of the House.”
