The most important story in America right now
is President Trump's health,
and what's weird about that is,
we don't really know much about it at all.
Despite President Trump's tweet that he was feeling better
than he did 20 years ago, serious questions remain
about the actual state of his health.
People have the right to demand to know more.
This is information that the public has a claim to.
NEWSWOMAN 2: What does a scan of his lungs show?
When did he last test negative for the virus?
ANDREA MITCHELL: We've not had a real medical report
from this president, unlike previous presidents.
This is the first president
we have not had a full medical report,
a really transparent disclosure.
This is not a partisan issue.
Everybody should have accurate information
about the president's health.
MAN: I think it's scary for our country.
I think this is, like, a very unprecedented moment
where we really don't know what's going on.
This really shows you where we're at now.
People are begging
for more information about Trump's body.
And part of the reason this secrecy makes everyone nervous
is because we all know that if Trump's lungs were clear,
he would never shut up about it.
He'd be telling us he has the best lungs ever,
they passed all their tests,
they're identifying rhinos left and right.
Now on the surface, it might seem
like hiding his health problems
from the American people is yet another example
of Trump breaking the norms of the presidency,
you know, like not releasing his tax returns, or
eating the Thanksgiving turkey instead of pardoning it.
But it turns out there's a long history
of American presidents keeping health secrets from the public.
And it's the subject of another installment
or our ongoing segment, "If You Don't Know, Now You Know."
♪ ♪
Being president is a weird job,
because in a democracy,
the president is the leader of the country,
but they're also an employee.
So do presidents have the right
to keep their health problems to themselves?
Well, throughout history, presidents have answered "yes."
NEWSMAN: Eisenhower was the first president to actually
open up medical records, but when a bad event happened,
they went into a kind of a cover-up mode.
September of 1955,
he was in Colorado and had a massive--
I mean massive-- heart attack, and, instead,
his personal doctor told the press it was indigestion.
(gunshots)
NEWSWOMAN: After Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981,
the White House released a photo
showing him standing with Nancy Reagan,
cropping out a nurse holding a machine
connected to a chest tube,
and never revealing how close he came to dying.
NEWSMAN 2: Kennedy flatly denied his Addison's disease,
a hormonal deficiency that can cause fatigue,
low blood pressure and weight loss, but he had it.
NEWSWOMAN 2: While in office, he at times took as many
as eight medications a day just to function,
including painkillers, stimulants, antibiotics,
steroids, hormones.
NEWSMAN 3: The man was essentially a walking pharmacy.
NEWSMAN 4: FDR was never transparent about his health.
Never. He tried to hide that he used a wheelchair
for years, and largely got away with it.
NEWSMAN 5: If Secret Service agents saw a photographer
taking a picture of Roosevelt, say, getting out of his car,
they would seize the camera and tear out the film.
Damn. FDR's people really went all out
to make sure people didn't see him in a wheelchair,
which kind of makes you wonder
what they told people was actually going on.
Isn't it weird that we've never seen the president
stand up or walk?
Yeah, he's lazy as shit, okay?
No more questions. Let's move on.
I mean, look, at least back then,
you could tear out someone's film in their camera.
In 2020, the moment someone points a camera at you,
you're already a meme.
It's like, "Give me that phone!"
-Give me that phone! Give me that phone! -♪ ♪
Give me that, give me, give me.
Give me, give me, give me that, give me that.
-Give me that phone! -♪ ♪
But, yes, throughout American history,
administrations did whatever it took to keep secrets
about the president's health,
from lying about FDR's wheelchair
by confiscating cameras,
to lying about Bill Clinton's asthma
by hiding his inhaler in a saxophone.
In fact, hiding health conditions
goes all the way back to Lincoln.
I mean, why do you think he was wearing that top hat?
Dude had a conjoined twin under there, guys.
That's-that's real, right? I saw that on Facebook.
In fact, the only American president
who didn't get away with it was President Taft.
Man, they spilled all the tea on that guy.
Poor dude got stuck in a bathtub once,
and we're still talking about it 100 years later.
And then, there's Grover Cleveland,
22nd president, and world's most adorable Grover.
Yeah, I said it, Grover, you mutant Smurf.
When it came to keeping secrets,
President Cleveland took it to a whole new level.
It's hard to imagine an American president dropping out of sight
for nearly a week, but that's exactly what happened in 1893,
when Grover Cleveland underwent secret cancer surgery.
NEWSMAN: Back in 1893,
Grover Cleveland actually had a cancerous tumor
in the roof of his mouth.
He didn't want anybody to know,
so they snuck him on to a yacht.
MAN: He had a friend who owned a yacht,
so the cover story would be,
"Oh, I'm just going on a fishing trip."
And while they were on that boat, the operation took place.
Six doctors were recruited.
They were all sworn to secrecy.
And in about 90 minutes,
they removed most of his upper left palate, five teeth,
and a good part of his upper left jaw, as well.
They managed to keep the press at bay.
They kept them at a distance from his home on Cape Cod
until the wound was healed well enough.
It took about three weeks.
And then he was fitted with a prosthetic device
that he could pop up
into his upper left jaw.
But by and large, the secret held for 24 years.
Yeah, I know what you're thinking.
Nobody heard from the president for three weeks?
What a dream!
But goddamn, that's a major cover-up!
Grover Cleveland basically invented that move
that celebrities do when they get secret butt implants.
Oh, yeah, I've just been away travelling for a couple weeks.
Oh, my butt? Yeah, I guess it did get twice as big.
You know how vacations are.
And if you ask me, it's hard to imagine
a riskier situation for a president.
Surgery on a boat in 1893?
And don't forget, they had dragons back then.
President Cleveland was a sitting duck out there!
I saw that on Facebook. That's a real thing, right?
Honestly, I don't even know why
Cleveland went through all this trouble.
If I were a president with a fake jaw,
I would own that shit, baby.
I would use it to intimidate other foreign leaders.
Oh, what's that, China?
You're gonna put sanctions on us?
Well, check this out!
Aah!
And look, maybe it's not a big problem
if a president hides some dental work or a mild pill addiction.
I mean, as long as they can still do the job,
what's the difference?
But there was also one case of a president
who got so sick that he couldn't do the job,
and they still didn't tell the American people.
NEWSMAN: Woodrow Wilson had a stroke
that not even his closest advisors knew about.
NEWSMAN 2: His last year and a half,
almost a year and a half in office,
he was incapacitated.
NEWSMAN 3: His wife tried to conceal how bad it was.
It turns out he was partially blind,
he was partially paralyzed.
He was lying upstairs in a bed
in the White House growing a beard,
and they pretended that it was not that bad.
NEWSMAN 4: His wife and his doctor told the cabinet
and told the vice president, "He's okay, we got this.
"You just can't see him.
"He's in seclusion upstairs,
and we'll pass down his decisions."
NEWSMAN 5: They told the public
their leader was suffering from exhaustion.
Many say Edith Wilson effectively ran the country
during that time.
Holy shit!
You guys act like this is some fun little quirk
of American history, but y'all had a straight-up coup.
And also, a secret woman president?
Guys, that's huge.
Why don't people talk about this more?
♪ Who run the world? Girls ♪
♪ But only behind the scenes ♪
♪ While getting none of the credit? Girls. ♪
So, yes, America has a proud history
of its presidents misleading the public about their health.
So from now on, when you hear Trump
or his doctors withholding medical information,
don't stress, because in a way,
this might actually be the most presidential thing
Donald Trump has ever done.
And if you don't know, now you know.