I am I am Superman, and I can do anything

To say this is reminiscent of North Korea might actually be an insult to North Korea:

“The reason for the imaging, as routine as we stated, is that any patient his age could have things, and we ruled them out,” said Jones. “The story should be about the fact that the results were, uh, perfect. They did not demonstrate any problems.”

“Excellent results,” Barbabella muttered, almost to himself. “They were excellent results.”

“I love these two guys; they’re great,” Trump said. “But I don’t know them. They’re White House doctors.”

For weeks, I’d been trying to get a handle on Trump’s health. I’d come away thinking he might be pretty healthy for an almost octogenarian, if not quite the superhuman the president or his team would have me believe. But I’m not a doctor, nor do I spend a lot of time with Trump. Now I was in a room with actual doctors who actually treat the president and know him. Perhaps more than anyone else in this country, they would be in a position to know — yet their proximity to him could be part of the problem.

“You worked for the Obamas, didn’t you?” Leavitt said to Jones.

“Yes, I did,” he said. Jones had, in fact, worked from 2009 to 2018 as a senior medical leader in the White House. At the end of his presidency, Barack Obama, a fitness fanatic rumored to allow himself precisely seven almonds a night, was 55 years old.

“Who is healthier, Obama or President Trump?” I asked.

Trump stared across the desk, making eye contact with Jones. Jones didn’t hesitate.

“President Trump,” he said.

Trump nodded. There was no sign of a smile, as if there could not have been any other answer to that question.

“Write that,” he said, turning to me.

Fred Trump died in 1999 at age 93. He had, Trump said, a “heart that couldn’t be stopped” with almost no health conditions to speak of throughout his long life. “He had one problem,” Trump said. “At a certain age, about 86, 87, he started getting, what do they call it?” He pointed to his forehead and looked to his press secretary for the word that escaped him.

“Alzheimer’s,” Leavitt said.

“Like an Alzheimer’s thing,” Trump said. “Well, I don’t have it.”

The whole thing is like that.

When the truth comes out, it will be like attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.