Donald Trump: I feel 35 and could live to 200 … if I didn’t eat so much junk food
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Donald Trump has said he feels “about 35 years old” and could live until 200 if he did not eat so much junk food.
The 77-year-old made the claim to supporters during a campaign event in New Hampshire, the next state in the Republican nomination contest for November’s presidential election.
One recent poll has put him in a dead heat in the state with Nikki Haley, the 51-year-old former UN ambassador who has previously taken swipes at his age.
“I feel like I’m about 35 years old. I feel better now than I did 30 years ago,” Mr Trump said on Wednesday.
“Cognitively, I’m better now than I was 20 years ago,” he added.
Mr Trump recalled that Ronny Jackson, his former White House physician, had previously said that he would “be around for 200 years” if he did not eat so much junk food.
Dr Jackson claimed in 2018 that Mr Trump, despite being in his seventies, overweight and with a fondness for burgers and diet coke, was in “excellent health”.
Questioned by a sceptical reporter over the assessment, he answered: “It’s called genetics. Some people have great genes.”
“I told the president if he’d had a better diet over the last 20 years he could have lived to 200 years old. The answer is he has incredibly good genes, it’s just the way God made him,” Dr Jackson said.
“He had great findings across the board but his cardiac health stood out. Hands down he is in the excellent range.”
Some suggested that Mr Trump’s height had been exaggerated during his presidency to avoid classifying him as obese.
Proponents of the theory are known as the “girther movement”, a reference to Mr Trump’s “birther” conspiracy claim that Barack Obama, the former US president, was born in Kenya.
Speaking at her rally in New Hampshire on Wednesday, Ms Haley claimed her former boss had thrown a tantrum while criticising her record at the UN as the pair traded fresh barbs on the campaign trail.
Mr Trump – fresh off a landslide victory in the Iowa caucuses – said at an event on Tuesday that she had not been “tough enough” in her role as ambassador.
“I know Trump threw a temper tantrum about me last night. I heard that,” Ms Haley told a rally in Rochester in response.
“And I’ve seen the commercials. I will always tell you the truth. I will always over-communicate with you.”
She has previously called for politicians over 75 years old to be subject to mental competency tests, which was seen as a slight to Mr Trump and Joe Biden, the 81-year-old US president.
