President Donald Trump revealed Monday that Rep. Neal Dunn (R-FL) had been diagnosed with a terminal heart disease, but has since been treated and has a renewed outlook on life.
Trump’s comments came at a convening of the Trump-Kennedy Center Board at the White House. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was seated directly to the president’s right and noted that Dunn’s exact diagnosis had not previously been made public.
As Trump and Johnson were lauding Dunn for staying in his position despite the difficult diagnosis, which had thus far not been public, Trump pressed Johnson, and the speaker said, “I think it was a terminal diagnosis.”
“He would be dead by June,” Trump said in response.
“OK, that wasn’t public, but yeah, OK,” Johnson said. “It was grim, that’s what I was going to say.”
Johnson expanded on the story after, recalling how, during a conversation between Dunn and Trump, the president offered his doctors to help with the congressman’s treatment.
“Within a number of hours, they took him to Walter Reed emergency surgery,” Johnson said. “The man has a new lease on life. He acts like he’s 30 years younger, and he walked into the conference meeting, and we thought we’d seen a ghost, and I spoke with him over the weekend, and he’s encouraged and thankful, and he thanks the president for his leadership and intervention.”
Trump said Johnson first told him about Dunn’s diagnosis during a conversation about the Republicans’ slim majority in Congress.
“No. 1, it was bad because I liked him,” Trump said of the diagnosis. “No. 2, it was bad because I needed his vote.
“White House doctors are incredible, and they’ve helped me with other people,” Trump said. “They’re helping me with people right now, people that are very sick. They’re miracle workers.”
After calling two White House doctors, the president said they went to see the congressman and had him on the operating table in “two hours.”
“It was a long operation, they gave him more stents and more everything that you could have,” Trump said. “I think he’s got everything that you could possibly have. And they called up, they said, ‘Sir, I think he’ll be fine.’ I said, ‘You got to be kidding.’”
Dunn announced earlier this year that he plans to retire at the end of his term. Trump said he was impressed by the Florida congressman for staying in the job.
“Most of them are going to say, ‘Mike, I’m retiring immediately.’ That’s the end,” the president said. “He didn’t do that. It really is really impressive.”
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You can watch Trump’s comments in full below.
This is a developing story and will be updated with new information as it becomes available.