CNN Medical Expert Slams Trump Over His ‘Nonsense’ Aspirin Claim
What To Know
- CNN medical analyst Jonathan Reiner criticized President Trump’s daily high-dose aspirin regimen, calling it “nonsense” and medically unnecessary.
- Reiner explained that aspirin and other anticoagulants do not actually “thin” the blood, and recent research shows that routine aspirin use in people over 70 can increase the risk of significant bleeding.
- Trump reportedly takes 325 mg of aspirin daily—much higher than the standard 81 mg dose—despite his doctors’ advice to lower it.
CNN’s medical analyst and top cardiologist, Jonathan Reiner, is baffled by President Donald Trump‘s regimen of taking aspirin to supposedly make his blood thinner.
As reported by Mediaite, Reiner appeared on CNN’s The Lead on Thursday (January 1) to discuss a new report from The Wall Street Journal, which claimed Trump has ignored doctors’ orders to take a lower dosage of aspirin.
“The large dose of aspirin he chooses to take daily has caused him to bruise easily, [Trump] said, and he has been encouraged by his doctors to take a lower dose,” the WSJ reported. “But Trump has declined to switch because he has been taking it for 25 years.”
“They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart,” Trump said. “I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?”
According to Reiner, who was Dick Cheney’s former heart doctor, the answer is no; that does not make sense.
“That makes no sense. That actually makes nonsense,” Reiner told CNN, per Mediaite. “So first of all, when we use any kind of anticoagulant, medications to prevent clotting, those don’t thin the blood. It’s not like changing something from gumbo to chicken soup. It doesn’t make it thinner. It makes you less likely to clot.”
He added that for many years, aspirin therapy was used to prevent heart attacks, but “we’ve learned in recent years that, particularly for people over the age of 70, not only is there no benefit in terms of just primary prevention… by giving them aspirin, that there can be hazard. And the hazard can be bleeding, significant bleeding.”
Reiner touched on the claims that the President is taking 325 mg of aspirin a day, saying that is well over the dosage usually prescribed to patients.
“The dosage that we use for patients, even with documented coronary artery disease, is a quarter of that. It’s 81 milligrams per day. So why is the President taking an unorthodox dose of aspirin?” Reiner stated.
As for why Trump won’t heed the advice of his own doctors, Reiner added, “It makes no sense to me.”
Trump has made headlines over the past year for the bruising on the back of his hands. The White House has previously attributed the bruising to the President’s use of aspirin and to frequent handshaking during his daily duties as Commander in Chief.
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