4 things we learned from Donald Trump’s interview on the Dr. Oz Show
Donald Trump’s interview with Dr. Mehmet Oz on the Dr. Oz Show aired Thursday afternoon. The presidential candidate’s appearance was light on politics or policy—but heavy on Trump. It even revealed a few quirks about the GOP nominee.
1. He doesn’t like vacations
According to Trump, vacations are “more stressful” than everyday life.
“I find that if I go on a vacation, it’s like that’s more stress to me, because I want to get back,” he told Oz, when asked about stress in general.
Trump recalled going on a vacation where no phone calls were allowed. It did not go well for him.
“I lasted about a day and a half,” said Trump. “I said, ‘Let’s get out of here. This is terrible.'”
The Boston Globe recently reported on how Trump, unlike previous presidents, seems uninterested in vacations, even in the warmest of summer months.
“It would bore and perhaps scare him. He needs constant activity and gratification,” a former colleague told the Globe. Trump’s campaign spokeswoman said he “prefers to work.”
2. He’s not much of a fitness nut
Trump is no Barack Obama or George W. Bush, when it comes to exercising.
At least, not in the traditional sense. He described his health regimen thusly: Golf, and standing for long periods of time at rallies.
“I’m speaking in front of 15 and 20,000 people, and I’m up there using a lot of motion,” he said. “I guess in its own way, it’s a pretty healthy act. I really enjoy doing it. A lot of times these rooms are very hot, like saunas, and I guess that is a form of exercise and, you know?”
In a New York Times Magazine profile last year, Trump said he has friends “who work out all the time,” without great results.
“They’re going for knee replacements, hip replacements — they’re a disaster,” he said.
In the interview Thursday, Trump also said his golf game has been improving as he’s gotten older, citing steady hands and better equipment. Maybe Tom Brady is giving him some tips.
3. In fact, he’s a little overweight.
During the interview, Oz noted that Trump’s 6-foot-3, 236-pound frame would indicate that he is potentially a little overweight.
And in a rare showing of non-self-assurance, and even a little self-deprecation, Trump admitted, “Yeah, I think I could lose a little weight.” More specifically, he said he would like to lose 15 to 20 pounds.
“I’ve sort of always been that,” Trump said, referring to his figure. “Probably a good swimmer, but I’ve always been this way.”
4. It worked
Once again, Trump hijacked the narrative for a day, in which the “whiplash-inducing” run-up to and airing of a relatively substantive-less interview dominated 24 hours of news coverage.
Furthermore, it successfully distracted from a potentially damaging Newsweek report Wednesday on how Trump’s business ties could compromise national security, as well as his son’s complaint Thursday, claiming the media would be “warming up the gas chamber” if the roles of Republicans and Democrats were reversed in this campaign.
Trump’s showman-esque ability to manipulate a narrative is not just a complaint among media critics.
Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, complained on Twitter that Trump was “playing you guys like a Stradivarius” in reference to the media’s obsession with the Dr. Oz interview.
Reporters,editors,producers should be all over this. They are not.But they are all over Dr Oz!Major failure of press https://t.co/az47CkpBSo
— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) September 15, 2016
Kurt Eichenwald, the author of the 4,000-plus-word Newsweek investigation on the possible conflicts of interest in Trump’s entanglement of foreign business deals, was similarly displeased.
https://twitter.com/kurteichenwald/status/776242498041622529
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