Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Trump’s Doctor Sounds Flippant About Donald’s Health — ‘They Can Just Keep Dying’

Harold Bornstein, President-elect Donald Trump’s doctor, already seemed a peculiar figure before the election, writing a letter in which he claimed his patient would be the healthiest American leader ever. That impression has been borne out in a recent media interview with the famous physician. “If something happens to him, then it happens to him,” Bornstein, trained as a gastroenterologist and working on the Upper East Side, told Stat News. “It’s like all the rest of us, no? That’s why we have a vice president and a speaker of the House and a whole line of people. They can just keep dying.”

Trump’s doctor attacked Obamacare, discussed his Jewish ancestry and said that he gave Hillary Clinton’s internist, Lisa Bardack, a Trump pin when he ran into her before the election. He described the former Democratic hopeful as an “old lady.”

Bornstein’s greatest rant, however, might have been the press itself. After he was interviewed, he threatened Stat News’ reporter, saying that he would ruin the journalist’s career if the story was published.

“I happen to have known the Sulzbergers for 50 years,” he said, referring to the family that owns The New York Times. “I’m going to make sure you don’t ever work again if you do this.”

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.