Since Leaving Butler, Trump Has Foregone the Best Medical Care and Is Withholding CT Scan Results
Fresh off his stunt calls for Joe Biden to be drug tested during the debate, Ronny Jackson — the lapsed doctor who turned the White House into a pill mill and covered up Trump’s near-lethal COVID — has made a show of releasing a medical update on Trump’s wound and treatment from the shooting attempt.
This purported medical update is not the first we’ve heard from Jackson about Donald Trump’s ear. Jackson did several media interviews before this, starting with propagandist Maria Bartiromo, a chat which focused far less on a quasi medical description. On July 16, in an interview with far right podcaster Benny, Jackson claimed the bullet didn’t get close enough to Trump’s head to cause any concussive effect. Sometime in the same period, right wing columnist Byron York spoke to Jackson more informally. Placing himself among that crowd, Jonathan Swan wrote a fawning story from Jackson’s view — confirming that Jackson offered to help Trump “medically or with the press” — mentioning none of the reasons that Jackson’s claims should be approached with skepticism.
So we should assume this “medical report” is about helping Trump with the press as much as it is changing his bandages.
The letter is an excellent test of how well various journalists evaluate credibility of sources — a good proxy for how they treat anonymous sources. You can watch, in real time, whether journalists consider the following before treating a discredited hack like Jackson as a credible source:
- Is he in a position to know what he claims?
- Is the report internally consistent
- Is he otherwise reliable?
For example, according to Jackson’s narrative (and Swan’s report), Jackson was not a witness to the most important detail of the report: what the doctors in Butler, PA determined.
The President was initially treated by the medical staff at Butler Memorial Hospital in Butler, Pennsylvania, who did an excellent job of evaluating him and treating his wound. I want to thank them for their outstanding care. They provided a thorough evaluation for additional injuries that included a CT of his head.
Jackson doesn’t know firsthand what their care was like. And Jackson’s reference to possible medical reports, with no substance, should raise questions about why we haven’t heard about the CT results (and why Jackson didn’t mention the CT test when Benny, who remarkably asked a better question than many self-imagined straight journalists, asked him about a concussion).
Crazier still, Jackson sources his knowledge about the bullet trajectory to what was, “reported and witnessed by the entire world, he sustained a gunshot wound to the right ear from a high- powered rifle used by the would be assassin.” Jackson’s description of the wound may well be accurate.
The bullet passed, coming less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head, and struck the top of his right ear. The bullet track produced a 2 cm wide wound that extended down to the cartilaginous surface of the ear. There was initially significant bleeding, followed by marked swelling of the entire upper ear. The swelling has since resolved, and the wound is beginning to granulate and heal properly. Based on the highly vascular nature of the ear, there is still intermittent bleeding requiring a dressing to be in place. Given the broad and blunt nature of the wound itself, no sutures were required.
But even there, Jackson’s description of the amount of bleeding is second hand (and inconsistent with what videos showed). Swan even described that Jackson had fallen behind his spouse, watching in the next room, as he followed Trump’s speech live. He watched the shooting itself on delay.
Mr. Jackson was in his bedroom in Amarillo, Texas, on Saturday night, packing his bag for the Republican convention. He was watching the Trump rally on his iPad, but he had stopped the livestream a couple of times, so he lagged behind Mr. Trump’s remarks by a couple of minutes. His wife, Jane, was watching the rally on a television in the living room, and she was speaking to someone on the phone. She suddenly called out to him.
“She said, ‘The president just got shot,’” Mr. Jackson recalled.
“And I said, ‘What? No.’”
“She goes, ‘Are you behind?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ And so I fast-forwarded it.”
Having gone an entire week exhibiting little curiosity about Trump’s medical condition, many outlets snapped this up as if it was credible.
WaPo’s Maegan Vazquez offers one of the better mainstream treatments of this. She raises Jackson’s partisan bias, describing Jackson as, “a political ally whose actions as a medical provider have come into question over the years,” in the second paragraph and returns to concerns about Jackson in later paragraphs.
He will have further evaluations, including a comprehensive hearing exam, as needed. He will follow up with his primary care physician, as directed by the doctors that initially evaluated him.
Axios’ Emma Loop, by contrast, basically just cut-and-pasted the one substantive paragraph. The only warning about Jackon’s unreliability was a link to a report on Jackson’s alcohol and personnel abuse, labeled as Axios’ “Go Deeper” category.
That made Loop’s report nearly indistinguishable from the one from an intern that Politico tasked with cutting and pasting the release.
WSJ simply stuck a quote from Jackson at the end of a report on Trump’s Grand Rapids rally, perhaps appropriately sandwiched between the ravings from other Trump groupies. It offered no caution about Jackson’s credibility.
NYT hasn’t covered yesterday’s release at all, perhaps figuring that Swan’s earlier fawning coverage was sufficient.
Perhaps the most important problem with Jackson’s report came from former Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.
As former President, Trump has available to him the best doctors in the world to evaluate a gunshot wound (and any possible damage to his brain).
According to Jackson, Trump hasn’t even consulted his primary care physician yet, nor has he had his hearing tested.
He will have further evaluations, including a comprehensive hearing exam, as needed. He will follow up with his primary care physician, as directed by the doctors that initially evaluated him.
Rather than having his physician care for this wound, then, Trump had his trusty PR flack do so.
But maybe Trump didn’t need a practicing doctor to care for him. Maybe the wound was so minor Trump needs no day-to-day medical care, he needs only a nurse to change his bandaid.
This certainly looked like a medical report. But what it reported is we still don’t know about results on the tests done in Butler, including the CT scan. And rather than conveying that, Trump has chosen to put his Candy Man on the case.
Update: This Alex Wagner interview with Vin Gupta discusses the kinds of concerns that doctors might have going forward.
Update: And here’s Sanjay Gupta with his questions.
Part of democracy is having informed voters. Hence, the point of the post. Reaching beyond that, perhaps wrongly OT, an agency on a budget dating back to 2010 as tight, owes normal duty to normal past Presidents, living normal lives. You hold massive rallies repeatedly in open outdoor areas, you being the private entity, the Republican Party and a campaign, if you need more security, buy it. You’ve Erik Prince in your fold. Choosing the expose a person to beyond normal danger, is a choice, where you’ve generated a cash pool and can pay for any further security you need. The Secret Service has to deal with in office personnel first. A party affiliated with threat makers, in trial contexts and otherwise, pushing on a social media channel against judges, others, is its own enemy when distraught people show up and actually shoot.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/07/20/trump-secret-service-security-attempted-assassination/ – two mid-item paragaphs:
” Bill Gage, a former Secret Service agent who served on presidential protection and counterassault teams during the Bush and Obama administrations, said the agency is always drowning in far more requests and events than it can possibly handle with its hiring limits, and that leads to headquarters denying requests even more frequently during the busy campaign season. ”
” “I hate to dumb it down this much but it is a simple case of supply and demand. The requests get turned down routinely,” Gage said. “A director has to finally come forward to say we are way understaffed and we cannot possibly continue with this zero fail mission without a significantly bigger budget.” “
I’m going to argue until the entire scenario has been investigated we can’t be sure more USSS personnel would have prevented the shooting. What if the real problem was poor management on the part of either USSS or local law enforcement?
No one seems to be asking why local law enforcement hadn’t secured the rooftop from which Crooks took his shot. Why wasn’t there a camera on the nearby water tower if not personnel monitoring the east side of the rally location?
source: https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/14/politics/timeline-trump-rally-shooting-dg/index.html
Cannot drones be used to secure a perimeter?
An excellent question and I have no idea why they weren’t in use other than it might be a policy by USSS and local law enforcement to halt all drones over campaign rally space.
A simple temporary camera set up on the tower could have been a huge help.
That the press comfortably assumes Biden is hiding things from them while accepting all claims from and about Trump from his partisans as unworthy of confirming is difficult to imagine as anything other than wilful journalistic malpractice.
And since Trump is now running on him having “taken a bullet for Democracy” just maybe the press might do some checking.
Re: “…took a bullet for democracy” my mind did this:
“The a** took some glass for fascists.” /s
[Fact check per EW: it wasn’t glass.]
The press is doing everything within their power to fight the magnificence of the phrase, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! They can’t stand the fact that this Administration has done more than virtually any other Administration in its first 2yrs. They are truly the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 5, 2019
Though not in the sense that Trump means, there is a kernel of truth in his words: that part of the press, the publishers of the MSM, particularly The Times and Wapo, have become enemies of the people. And as Marcy has repeatedly pointed out, it’s not only what they publish, but what they don’t ask and don’t publish. e.g., NYT holding story about Bush authorizing NSA’s illegal domestic spying program until after the 2004 election. Malpractice is generally negligence that leads to failing to live up to a minimum standard. I think in the disparate treatment of Trump and Biden, the MSM is engaging in intentional harm, rather than just malpractice. Of course given the enormous responsibility of the Fourth Estate, malpractice is reprehensible.
On topic, clearly and completely stated, we should know if there is any damage, or prior unknown situation, uncovered in the treatment and diagnoses arising from the ear shot. Marcy is correct for pointing that out, despite it being obvious, in a way that places the question logically, as why do nontransparency? What purpose is there? Inform voters. That is how the system is supposed to work.
What is obvious is that the corporate owned media and the billionaires have the figuretive hit out on Biden and are in the bag for the carnival barker. He was shot at but was not hit by the bullet. With “Ronnie Johnson” on the soap box the truth will never be known. TFG never speaks the truth and his sycophants around him will support every lie he tells. The media has completely debased itself in the TFG era. The only way the truth will come out is if the doctor in Butler PA, who treated him releases his full medical evaluation.
And you know no licensed health care professional in a licensed health care facility is going to release Trump’s “full medical evaluation” because of HIPAA.
We also don’t know if health care personnel were asked to sign NDAs by the campaign.
If Jackson’s medical license status is still the same (as in “none”), what is he doing issuing medical assessments. Reading his letter, one could easily get the impression that he had “consulted” with:
“…the medical staff at Butler Memorial Hospital in Butler, Pennsylvania, who did an excellent job of evaluating him and treating his wound. I want to thank them for their outstanding care. They provided a thorough evaluation for additional injuries that included a CT of his head. He will have further evaluations, including a comprehensive hearing exam, as needed. He will follow up with his primary care physician, as directed by the doctors that initially evaluated him.”
This seems to imply that Jackson had in-person direct professional contact with hospital staff. That letter, on Congressional letterhead, is classic Jackson B.S.
The last statement on that letter — “I am heading to the rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan with President Trump now, and I will remain at his side throughout the weekend to provide any medical assistance he needs.” — is more worrisome. Jackson’s past behavior as a physician should be red-flagged by the Secret Service. If they are allowing quacks to attend the President in anything remotely resembling POTUS medical matters, they deserve the upcoming scrutiny.
The MSM just accepting Jackson’s self-promoting quackery continues the narrative on the quality of journalism in this country.
I had been saying that it didn’t matter whether it was glass or a bullet that caused Trump’s injuries since, either way, they were caused by someone shooting at him. That’s the most important fact here.
But that shows what I know. The concussive effect of a bullet getting close enough to injure the President is an issue of concern. Physics doesn’t magick itself away, not even for Trump. Neither does PTSD.
A CT of the head was done and apparently was reassuring for acute changes related to the trauma. But until the radiology report is released “we the people” cannot know if other “incidental” findings consistent with chronic changes are present.
Where’s the evidence that “A CT of the head was done and apparently was reassuring for acute changes related to the trauma.” Apparently reassuring to whom?
I would like to see a diagram of where the injured people sat in relation to Trump and including the position of Crooks on the building. In the diagram, I would like to see the trajectories of the bullets.
Geometrically, the streaks on Trump’s face seem inconsistent with the story he tells. I’ve looked at different photos of the ear injury taken from slightly different angles. There is a small white speck that is suspect.
What happened to Trump’s ear may not have happened at all if other people had not been injured. I don’t think his injury was caused by a bullet or by glass. I think his injury is evidence of the injury of someone else.
Maybe that’s why it took him several days before he called Corey Comperatore’s family.
The timeline CNN published includes photos marked up with locations which might be helpful. To me it looks like Comperatore must have been shot from behind and the others injured at the opposite end of the bleachers behind the stage must have been facing the shooter.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/14/politics/timeline-trump-rally-shooting-dg/index.html
Here are three other reports with maps. Trump was definitely in the line of fire.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cevwngjrwzno
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2024/trump-rally-shooting-maps-secret-service-analysis/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/07/13/us/trump-rally-shooting-maps-photos.html
I also recall other reports of SS officers being injured by flying debris, but the only news item I can find now is sourced by Ronny Jackson (!) and doesn’t mention SS: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-injury-shooting-incident-pennsylvania-rally-what-we-know-rcna161745
Feels like there should be more official reports/ information being released? Maybe we’ll hear more at tomorrow’s hearing.
I have wondered, where in the bleachers, Corey Comparatore was seated.
CT scans are also commonly used to diagnose Alzheimer’s, hence Trump’s CT scan may have revealed more than Trump wanted the public to know.
This has a very Barr flavor to it. A medical report-shaped object released to take the place of a medical report. And like Barr’s “summary” they lap it up.
Excellent piece!
In addition, Trump never tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth; Trump is a pathological liar. And he micromanages his campaign PR personally.
As a result, like his illnesses during his tenure in the White House, notably the Covid-19 trip to the hospital, Trump will always lie, never tell the whole truth and never release his medical records.
To assist himself in perpetuating his continuous lies, Trump hires the Ronny Jackson’s and J.D. Vance’s of the world to lie along with him. It’s Trump’s MO.
I would like to know if the shot that hit Trump came from the rear, side or front of Trump. That should be easy to determine based on where the shooter was killed on the roof and where Trump was standing.
Having been quite alive during the JFK assassination and listening to the live radio broadcasts minutes after the shooting describing witnesses stating the shots at JFK came from the Triple Bypass/Grassy Knoll area, the details on whether Trump was hit from the rear, side or front might also take a long time, if ever, to learn.
Donald Trump gets injured in an assassination attempt, is seen being led off the stage with blood on his ear and face, never does bother to announce a medical status of any kind, surfaces days later at the convention with a gigantic bandage over his ear, then shows up to a rally right after that and suddenly no longer needs a bandage, even as House Republican Ronny Jackson (who is not Trump’s doctor) issues a vague “medical report” that doesn’t pass the credibility test.
Trump never releases reports from doctors who actually treat him.
EW is a Mistress of the Truth on her site, and I am awed by her patience and intellectual insights, coupled with contained emotions regarding the antics of the Press in relation to Trump. My brain does not function, unfortunately, in this very detached, analytical method.
Instead, as a visual artist, I see things which sometimes others overlook. I am also emotional about what I see. So, with that introduction, my reaction to the Trump “shooting” is: “the lucky bum” pops up, again, alive and “invincible,” in his and his followers’ eyes, enabled by endless news articles about every nuance of everything from his diapers, farts, makeup, weight, wives, felonies, and now, this blood on an ear and his cheek. My take? He got hit with a fragment of something, which grazed his ear, and he was damned lucky. Luck, not Divine Intervention!
The Press, does not report, in detail, about Biden’s accomplishments and the best aspects of his personality; reports which should, ideally, combine a focused attention to what is important about the act of governance with his actual accomplishments as President in trying to keep his promises as President. The Press gives us only gossip about age, sickness, and betrayal by his fellow Democrats. The imbalance is infuriating! And, the brainwashing is so dern obvious! Don’t fall into the dump-Biden trap! Stop the focus on a flesh wound which a large Florida mosquito could have caused, and help Biden win in November!
According to the below referenced NPR article, local law enforcement was responsible for securing the building the attempted assassin used.
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/16/nx-s1-5040454/attempted-assassination-of-donald-trump-puts-secret-service-into-harsh-spotlight
There is also the known fact that Trump’s political committee NEVER pays its security bills of local law enforcement when there is a rally.
https://publicintegrity.org/politics/donald-trump-police-cities-bills-maga-rallies/
The shooter is said to have surveyed the site with a drone on the day of. Had he used the drone with explosives instead of the gun, it may have been much different, and authorities may still be looking for him. In my opinion from having treated several different gunshot wounds, the nick Trump received is likely the extent of his physical injuries.