After a highly entertaining bit role in Season One of the Trump Show, Dr. Harold Bornstein disappeared, disappointing fans of the offbeat doctor whose hair flowed as freely as his medical superlatives. Bornstein wrote, “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency,” and then justified this assessment on the indisputable grounds that “all the rest of them are either sick or dead.” (It’s true: Since your health status doesn’t get any worse than “dead,” the vast majority of former presidents, ranked in health terms, are tied for last place.)
Now, to the delight of fans who missed his character, Bornstein is back. He explains to NBC News how he lost his spot as Trump’s doctor. It was not because his hyperbolic insta-check of Trump’s health lacked credibility. After telling a reporter that he gives Trump Propecia to stimulate hair growth, Bornstein was fired on the phone by Trump’s secretary, and then Trump’s bodyguard and a large man appeared at Bornstein’s office to seize Trump’s health files.
Bornstein tells NBC he felt “raped, frightened, and sad,” though it is perhaps understandable that the president would discontinue his relationship with a doctor who gave out embarrassing information about his hair-growth drug. Bornstein has come forward because of the saga of Dr. Ronny Jackson, who stands accused of a wide array of misdeeds ranging from excessive drinking and wrecking a government vehicle to violating patient privacy. Having lost both his promised post as head of the Veterans Administration and even as Trump’s personal physician, Jackson has suffered even greater humiliation than Bornstein himself.
Bornstein is, naturally, thrilled. He tells NBC he is speaking out now because of Jackson’s predicament. “This is like a celebration for me,” explains Dr. Bornstein. And it is certainly true that, now, when somebody mentions “that crazy story with the Trump doctor,” people now have to ask “Which one?”Advantage: Bornstein.
