Doctor behind 77-year-old Trump’s vague medical report is member of his golf club – as source denies ex-president dictated what he should write

The doctor who Trump relied on to write his sparse medical report turns out to be a long-time member of the former President’s New Jersey golf club.

Bruce A. Aronwald, 64, who has been described as a ‘fixture’ of the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, conducted Trump’s medical examination on September 13, 2023.

In his report, which was published in November, Aronwald offered a glowing assessment of Trump’s health.

At the beginning of the letter, Aronwald noted that he had become Trump’s personal doctor in 2021.

He stated that as the former president’s personal physician, he had ‘supervised specialist consultations along with ancillary testing for screening and preventative health maintenance’. 

Without delving into specifics, Aronwald wrote that ‘President Trump’s overall health is excellent’. 

The doctor observed that Trump’s physical exams were ‘well within the normal range,’ and that the results of his cognitive tests were ‘exceptional’. 

Aronwald concluded his report, which amounted to three paragraphs, with his opinion ‘that President Trump is currently in excellent health’. 

The doctor said that with Trump’s ‘continued interest in preventative health monitoring and maintenance, he will continue to enjoy a healthy and active lifestyle for years to come.’

Detractors were quick to point out how vague the report was. It left out Trump’s blood test numbers, and it didn’t mention Trump’s weight- without which, it is impossible to tell if Trump would be considered obese. 

The report also failed to include any medications that Trump might currently be taking. 

A previous report, conducted by a different doctor and disclosed in 2018, showed that Trump’s weight was 239 pounds, qualifying him as borderline obese for his 6’3′ height.

President Biden’s recent medical report, by contrast, was six pages long, and it offered readers a more thorough assessment of the president’s health. 

It included metrics for cholesterol, blood pressure, weight, and an electrocardiogram. The report also disclosed the details of the president’s blood tests and his current medications.

After Biden’s report was released, White House spokesman Anrew Bates said: ‘Joe Biden is proud to have been transparent with his health records as Vice President, as a presidential candidate, and as President.’

And in a not-too-subtle dig at Trump, the spokesman added that Biden ‘believes all leaders owe that level of honesty to the American people’. 

Trump’s vague health report became even more controversial once it was revealed that Aronwald, the doctor who wrote it, was a long-time member of Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, which opened in 2004.

Like Biden’s personal physician, Kevin C. O’Connor, Bruce Aronwald is an osteopathic physician, a field of medicine that aims to address a patient’s health from a holistic approach.

Aronwald is originally from Bridgewater, New Jersey. He attended Syracuse University before receiving his osteopathic degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 1986.

In 2002, Aronwald joined the burgeoning business of concierge medicine, which is tailored to a wealthier clientele. For the price of a high annual fee, patients are able to enjoy more immediate access to their doctors.

Jack Kripsak, a physician who has been acquainted with Trump’s doctor for 50 years, told The Washington Post that Aronwald might have previously provided medical services to Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, who, like Trump, own villas at Bedminster.

Kripsak also informed the Post that Trump personally reached out to Aronwald to see if the doctor and golf club member would be his personal physician. 

‘It came as a surprise to Bruce.’ Kripsak recounted: ‘He called me and said, ”President Trump gave me a call”.’ 

Aronwald told Kripsak that Trump ‘asked me to be his personal physician’. 

The New Jersey doctor is reported to be a regular at Trump’s Bedminster club, where members often see him socializing with Trump and his family near the pool.

‘If you are sitting around the pool, you see him all the time,’ one club member told The Washington Post. 

They called Aronwald ‘a fixture’ of the golf club.

It’s been reported that Aronwald participated in the Senior Interclub Championship at the Trump club, and an anonymous source confirmed to The Washington Post that Aronwald is still a member of the golf club.

People have begun to question whether or not Trump might have exerted undue influence on Aronwald when writing the medical report, given the doctor’s membership at the golf club.

It also wouldn’t be the first time the former president has allegedly browbeaten a doctor into writing a laudatory medical evaluation.

In 2015, after Trump had announced his candidacy, he wrote on Twitter: ‘as a presidential candidate, I have instructed my longtime doctor to issue, within two weeks, a full medical report — it will show perfection.’

But the promised medical report wasn’t imminent. Instead, the day after the tweet, Harold Bornstein, Trump’s physician at the time who has since passed away, signed a four-paragraph letter that claimed that Trump would be ‘the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.’

There was a paucity of details, with the letter only including basic metrics such as blood pressure and a PSA test for prostate screening.

Bornstein, a gastroenterologist, later recanted the contents of the letter, telling CNN that Trump ‘dictated that whole letter. I didn’t write that letter. I just made it up as I went along.’

The Washington Post asked the Trump campaign if Trump dictated the medical report to Aronwald. 

An individual authorized to discuss the matter on the condition of anonymity answered: ‘no.’

Given the age of the two leading presidential candidates- Trump, 77, and Biden, 81- the health of the future chief executive is weighing heavily on voters’ minds.

Both Trump and Biden have previously impugned each other’s health. Doing so has heightened the public’s scrutiny of their physical and mental fitness. 

Trump’s doctor’s comparatively vague medical report was seized on by critics as evasiveness on Trump’s part.

But fellow doctors and Aronwald’s patients have stated that their during their interactions with the osteopath, he never indicated a political persuasion. 

Sandeep Tungare, a Democrat and contributor to Biden’s campaign, told The Washington Post that he has been a patient of Aronwald’s for three decades.

Tungare revealed that he had never heard Aronwald express political views.

‘I just think he is a good doctor,’ Tungare said.

Ira Monk, the president of the American Osteopathic Association, once practiced alongside Aronwald.

Monk told the Post that Aronwald is one of New Jersey’s ‘top concierge doctors.’

He noted that a doctor could not achieve that without being a ‘solid fundamentally strong primary care doctor.’

Federal campaign finance records only reveal a $1,000 donation in 2015 to the presidential campaign of Chris Christie, the former Republican governor of New Jersey.

Trump, asked for comment, told The Washington Post that ‘Dr. Aronwald is one of the best doctors in all of New Jersey and possibly the entire country.’

‘He has a great reputation and I have many friends who have been patients of his for years. A great doctor.’