Trump rejects doctors' advice to take less aspirin: 'I want nice, thin blood'

President Trump said in new interview regarding his health that he has rejected his doctors’ advice to take less aspirin for cardiac prevention because he has been taking it for more than two decades and is a “little superstitious.” 

“They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart,” Trump said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that was published on Thursday. “I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?”

Trump, 79, became the oldest person to assume the presidency last year, and questions about his health have dogged his second term

“Let’s talk about health again for the 25th time,” he told the Journal at the beginning of the interview. “My health is perfect.”

Concerns have only risen, however, after photos began to emerge of bruises on the president’s hand, which the White House has attributed to his aspirin usage.

Doctors have recommended that the president take smaller dose of aspirin than what he currently takes, which is 325 milligrams a day, according to Trump’s physician, Sean Barbabella. A low dose of aspirin is typically closer to 80 milligrams.

“They’d rather have me take the smaller one,” he said. “I take the larger one, but I’ve done it for years, and what it does do is it causes bruising.” 

Trump also said that he got a CT during his October visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, not an MRI as previously reported.

“I would have been a lot better off if they didn’t, because the fact that I took it said, ‘Oh gee, is something wrong?’ Well, nothing’s wrong,” he said. 

The White House has repeatedly said Trump is in excellent health, though he is known to favor unhealthy foods and to disdain exercise apart from golf.

“I just don’t like it. It’s boring,” he told the Journal. “To walk on a treadmill or run on a treadmill for hours and hours like some people do, that’s not for me.” 

Trump also denied that he has been falling asleep during some recent events at the White House, despite multiple instances in which cameras appeared to catch him dozing off.

“I’ll just close. It’s very relaxing to me. Sometimes they’ll take a picture of me blinking, blinking, and they’ll catch me with the blink,” he said.