WASHINGTON — President Trump explained his aversion to exercise — aside from golfing — in a new interview, saying bluntly: ‘I just don’t like it. It’s boring.”
“To walk on a treadmill or run on a treadmill for hours and hours like some people do, that’s not for me,” the president told the Wall Street Journal.
The president, who turns 80 in June, is an avid golfer and routinely spends weekends and holidays playing at courses he owns in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia.
“My ‘exercise’ is playing, almost never during the week, a quick round of golf,” Trump tweeted in 2020.
The president “considers exercise misguided, arguing that a person, like a battery, is born with a finite amount of energy,” according to a 2017 article in The New Yorker.
Trump addressed concerns about his health in the interview, insisting that his “very good genetics” shield him from common age-related ailments.
He revealed, however, that he has resisted medical advice on multiple occasions.
The president said he stopped using compression socks to treat a blood-flow issue, chronic venous insufficiency, that caused his legs and ankles to swell last year.
“I didn’t like them,” Trump said of his decision not to wear the socks, which experts say can prevent potentially serious complications such as blood clots.
Instead, Trump said he is walking more and sitting behind the Resolute Desk for shorter periods of time so that his leg muscles will pump the blood back to his heart, which experts also recommend.
In a surprising clarification, Trump and his physician, Dr. Sean Barbabella, said that he received a less-intensive CT scan during an October physical to analyze his cardiovascular health — and not an MRI, despite Trump and his aides stoking months of speculation by referring to the scan as an MRI.
The president additionally told the Journal that he has refused to lower his 325-milligram aspirin regimen, meant to prevent heart issues, to the doctor-recommended 81 milligrams meant to reduce noticeable bruising on his hands.
“I’m a little superstitious,” Trump said.
“They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart. I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?”
