--- title: Donald Trump’s Doctor Wrote Health Letter in 5 Minutes description: The physician who called Donald Trump's health “astonishingly excellent” said he wrote the much-discussed health report in just five minutes canonical: https://time.com/4469201/donald-trump-doctor-health-letter/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-26T23:00:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:41.910Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump’s Doctor Wrote Letter on His ‘Extraordinary’ Health in Just 5 Minutes og:description: As a limo was waiting og:url: https://time.com/4469201/donald-trump-doctor-health-letter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91338d9bd0196d54/6988a3de524fc004c0df94cb/harold-bornstein.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2366 og:image:height: 1331 og:image:alt: Harold Bornstein doctor for Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump’s Doctor Wrote Letter on His ‘Extraordinary’ Health in Just 5 Minutes twitter:description: As a limo was waiting twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91338d9bd0196d54/6988a3de524fc004c0df94cb/harold-bornstein.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump’s Doctor Wrote Letter on His ‘Extraordinary’ Health in Only 5 Minutes > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Aug 26, 2016 11:00 PM UTC  Dr. Harold Bornstein, personal physician to Donald Trump arrives at his office at 101 East 78th street on Dec. 15, 2015. Dr. Harold Bornstein, personal physician to Donald Trump arrives at his office at 101 East 78th street on Dec. 15, 2015. Joe Marino—NY Daily News/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Aug 26, 2016 11:00 PM UTC The physician who [called Donald Trump’s health](http://time.com/4148111/donald-trump-health-report/) “astonishingly excellent” last year said on Friday that he wrote the [much-discussed](http://time.com/4148175/twitter-donald-trump-doctor/) health report in [just five minutes](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-doctor-wrote-health-letter-just-5-minutes-limo-waited-n638526?cid=sm%5Ftw) and stands by his assessment. “His health is excellent, especially his mental health,” Dr. Harold Bornstein said in an [interview with NBC Nightly News](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-doctor-wrote-health-letter-just-5-minutes-limo-waited-n638526?cid=sm%5Ftw) on Friday. He said he typed the letter at the last minute, while a limo dispatched by Trump waited for it. “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency,” Bornstein wrote in the letter, calling the Republican nominee’s strength and stamina “extraordinary.” **Read more:** [Why So Many Presidents Are So Healthy](http://time.com/4148215/donald-trump-health-presidents/) He affirmed that statement in the interview with NBC. “I like that sentence to be quite honest with you and all the rest of them are either sick or dead,” said Bornstein, who has been Trump’s doctor for 35 years. He said his enthusiastic wording was inspired by the over-the-top language Trump favors. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4469201/donald-trump-doctor-health-letter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4469201/donald-trump-doctor-health-letter/"},"headline":"Donald Trump’s Doctor Wrote Letter on His ‘Extraordinary’ Health in Only 5 Minutes","datePublished":"2016-08-26T23:00:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:41.910Z","description":"Dr. Harold Bornstein said in a new interview that he wrote the letter quickly as a limo was waiting","url":"https://time.com/4469201/donald-trump-doctor-health-letter/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91338d9bd0196d54/6988a3de524fc004c0df94cb/harold-bornstein.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91338d9bd0196d54/6988a3de524fc004c0df94cb/harold-bornstein.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Harold Bornstein doctor for Donald Trump","caption":"Harold Bornstein doctor for Donald Trump","creditText":"Joe Marino—NY Daily News/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4469201/donald-trump-doctor-health-letter/","name":"Donald Trump’s Doctor Wrote Letter on His ‘Extraordinary’ Health in Only 5 Minutes"}}]}] ```