Harold Nelson Bornstein (March 26, 1947 – January 8, 2021) was an American

gastroenterologist Gastroenterology (from the Greek gastḗr- “belly”, -énteron “intestine”, and -logía "study of") is the branch of medicine focused on the digestive system and its disorders. The digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract, ...

, who was best known as

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

's personal physician. Bornstein was Donald Trump's personal physician from 1980 until early 2018; before then Bornstein's father was his personal physician.

Education

Bornstein received his M.D. degree from

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

in 1975 and had been licensed to practice medicine in New York State since 1976. He was certified by the

American Board of Internal Medicine The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, self-appointed physician-evaluation organization that certifies physicians practicing internal medicine and its subspecialties. The American Board of Internal Medicine is n ...

as a specialist in Internal Medicine (1978) and Gastroenterology (1983).

Trump's personal physician role

In December 2015 in response to questions about his health, Trump asked Bornstein to issue a "full medical report", predicting that it would show "perfection". Two days later Bornstein signed a letter full of superlatives, saying that Trump's "laboratory results are astonishingly excellent" and that Trump "will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency." In August 2016, Bornstein stated that he had written the letter in five minutes while Trump's limousine waited for it. But he reiterated that Trump's "health is excellent, especially his mental health." In May 2018 Bornstein said that, in fact, Trump had dictated the letter over the telephone, then sent a car to pick it up. Bornstein said in an interview with CNN that "Mr. Trump dictated the letter and I would tell him what he couldn't put in there..." Speaking to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' in February 2017, Bornstein revealed that he was invited to and attended President Trump's inauguration with his wife Melissa. Bornstein told ''The Times'' that he enjoyed the attention from being known as the President's personal physician. According to Stat, Bornstein had hoped to be the

physician to the President The physician to the president is the formal and official title of the physician who is chosen by the president to be his personal physician. Often, the physician to the president also serves as the director of the White House Medical Unit, a ...

, but the White House decided that

Ronny Jackson Ronny Lynn Jackson (born May 4, 1967) is an American physician, politician, and retired United States Navy rear admiral who is the U.S. representative for . Jackson joined the White House Medical Unit in the mid-2000s under George W. Bush, a ...

would continue in that role. On May 1, 2018, Bornstein told

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's v ...

that three Trump representatives had "raided" his office on February 3, 2017, taking all of Trump's medical records. He identified two of the men as Trump's longtime bodyguard

Keith Schiller Keith Schiller (born c. 1959) is an American former law enforcement official and security consultant who served as Deputy Assistant to U.S. President Donald Trump and Director of Oval Office Operations. Prior to his appointment in the Trump adm ...

and the Trump Organization's chief legal officer Alan Garten. Two days earlier, Bornstein had told a reporter that Trump took a prescription hair growth medicine, Propecia, after which Trump cut ties with him.

Death

Bornstein died in January 2021. The place and cause of death was not disclosed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bornstein, Harold 1947 births 2021 deaths 21st-century American physicians American gastroenterologists Tufts University School of Medicine alumni Physicians from New York City American people of Jewish descent