Donald Trump and Dr. Oz: A Match Made on TV



When Donald J. Trump sought someone in a public forum to talk about his health, he went with a kindred spirit — a physician who is not only Republican, but also has spent the last decade attracting an enormous following on television.

That doctor, Mehmet Oz, 56, will tape an episode of his show, “The Dr. Oz Show,” with Mr. Trump on Wednesday, to air the next day.

Mr. Trump, 70, the Republican presidential nominee, is expected to release the results of a recent physical on the show, four days after his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, 68, had to be helped into a van while leaving a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony on Sunday. Her doctor said later that she had pneumonia. Before that announcement, some of Mr. Trump’s supporters had suggested that Mrs. Clinton had more serious health problems.

Mr. Trump will also “share his vision for America’s health,” according to a news release from the show about the appearance, declaring boldly that it would be “a no-holds-barred conversation you’ll be talking about.”

In an interview with Fox News, Dr. Oz said he planned to ask “pointed questions,” but he suggested that most holds would, in fact, be barred.

“The metaphor for me is, this is a doctor’s office, the studio,” he said. “So I’m not going to ask him questions he doesn’t want to have answered, and I also don’t want to talk about anybody else.”

“I do think people want to understand, well, what happens to my health care if Mr. Trump is elected, and more importantly, what kind of role model is he for health in our country?” Dr. Oz added.

 
Graphic: For Every 10 U.S. Adults, Six Vote and Four Don’t. What Separates Them?
Dr. Oz also said he would ask Mr. Trump, a lover of fast food, “What does he eat — how does he deal with the stress?”

It is unclear exactly how much more information about Mr. Trump’s health voters will gain from the appearance, which was scheduled last week. (Dr. Oz said he had also invited Mrs. Clinton to appear on the show.) So far the most the public has to go on is a letter from Dr. Harold Bornstein, a longtime doctor for Mr. Trump, that dripped superlatives about him but offered little by way of specifics.

“I want to see if I can make some sense out of that, the letter,” Dr. Oz told Fox News.

A cardiothoracic surgeon by training, Dr. Oz has a large female viewership, one reason the Trump campaign chose him as an outlet.

Famous thanks to Oprah Winfrey, who knighted him “America’s Doctor,” Dr. Oz, who has worked at some of New York’s top hospitals, has a large and devoted fan base. He has been praised for focusing on lifestyle choices and for his ability to explain medical concepts in an easy-to-grasp manner.

He has also been criticized for questionable assertions over the course of his television career, and sometimes speaks in the same type of hyperbole that Mr. Trump employs and that the medical profession generally rejects.

He has branched out into alternative medical practices on his show, written several books, maintained a website and focused on helping people fight cancer and lose weight.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/us/politics/donald-trump-health-dr-oz.html?ref=politics