Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
No Laughing Matter: Trump's 'Covfefe' Tweet May Signal Cognitive Trouble, Experts Warn
USA Today: Having A Hard Time Sleeping? So Is President Trump And It May Affect His Performance.
The tweet came, as they often do, when many others on the East Coast are sleeping. But when President Trump complained to the twitterverse about all the "negative press covfefe," just after midnight Wednesday, sleep experts saw it as more than just a laughable lapse. "Cognitive tasks like spelling are impaired by poor sleep," says neurologist Chris Winter, author of the new book The Sleep Solution. "I would think something’s up, to put it mildly." (O'Donnell, 5/31)
Los Angeles Times: All Jokes Aside, Trump's 'Covfefe' Tweet Sparks Questions Too
Trump’s tweet did raise concerns about the health of a president who is 70 years old, overweight and just returned from a jam-packed eight-day trip across the Middle East and Europe. Conservative writer David Frum, a former aide to President George W. Bush, tweeted his speculation that Trump may have experienced a spasm while his Twitter feed was live, and lost consciousness. “Because typos are rapidly fixed. This looks as if the president spasmed, passed out — and nobody on staff noticed,” wrote Frum, who has been a frequent critic of Trump. However innocent the truth of this matter, speculation about Trump’s mental and physical health follows a long history of presidents hiding the facts about troubling medical conditions from the public. (Bennett, 5/31)
