Sunday, August 21, 2016

In search of Donald Trump's doctor

Let's do a little further research into the mysterious Dr. Harold Bornstein, the doctor who (allegedly) wrote that hilariously unprofessional "To Whom My Concern" missive. Remember? That's the one that proclaimed Donald Trump to be the fittest living entity since Hercules. That's also the letter in which Donald Trump tested positive for...everything.

Since everyone except me seems to be on Twitter these days, I thought I'd look up the man's Twitter history.

The search engine I consulted listed two possible feeds. The first one bears the image of Dr. Nick Riviera from The Simpsons. Several subtle clues have caused me to suspect that this account may not be legit.

The second account appears to be quite real. Bornstein emitted only three tweets in late 2013 and in November of 2014; all three messages appear to be unimportant piffle. Oddly enough, he seems to prefer expressing himself in Italian. Here's a screen shot:


I'm not saying that Bornstein is in any way an unethical medical practitioner; I'm sure that everything he does is honest and above-board. All I'm saying is that he looks like the kind of doctor whose patients have a tendency to say things like "Look, man -- I just need some stuff. Just to tide me over. You gotta help me, man." I will also tentatively suggest that if we were to explore this line of investigation, we might understand why Donald Trump sometimes sounds like Sarah Palin on meth. (Actually, the theory that she is on meth would explain a lot.)

But our focus today is on Dr. Bornstein, not on his most famous patient. Perhaps we will learn more about this doctor if we study the Twitter feeds that he has chosen to follow.

(As always, the reader must understand that I myself avoid Twitter and cannot claim to understand its ways.)

There are three listed accounts. First up: Darth MaKaVeLious. He appears to have something to do with the hip-hop subculture, even though he's a Trump fan. Not interesting.

Much more intriguing is the account of a Lebanese singer named Amar. Although I've never heard her perform, Amar instantly became my favorite pop music star.

Why? Here's why:


"Did my heart love till now? Foreswear it, sight!/For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night."

My feminist readers, if I still have any, will probably hate me for noting that Lebanese women are famous for their beauty. So are Ukrainian women, by the way.

(Christ, I'm starting to sound as skeezy as The Donald.)

It may interest some of you to know that, last December, Amar was attacked by a madman who claimed to have a connection to ISIS.

What really intrigues me is the third listed account which Dr. Bornstein has chosen to follow. It's in Arabic.

YOW. Take a look.


I hate to jump to conclusions, but doesn't that page look kind of...you know...jihad-y?

I don't know Arabic. However, I do know how to run a web page through Google Translate:


Okay. Now this account is looking more like the work of someone who is anti-terror -- and also anti-Israel. But I can't really be sure of that conclusion, given the language barrier and the uncertainties of a Google translation. Let me repeat once again: I do not often visit the world of Twitter and cannot claim to comprehend how it works.

We can fairly say that the mysterious Dr. Bornstein keeps unfolding like a flower. If my readers can offer any help in understanding his various interests, I am all attention.

Again, nothing in this post is meant to defame Dr. Bornstein. I have no doubt that HE IS THE MOST AWESOMELY EXCELLENT DOCTOR IN ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY!

Believe me, folks. He'll make you so healthy you'll get sick of not being sick.

12 comments:

Stephen Morgan said...

Looks to me like he follows over thirty people and is followed by 20 more. I can't see what they are because I haven't got an account.

I'm also anti-Zionist. This Bornstein seems like a real hep cat.

b said...

As I write this, Harold Bornstein, the most astonishingly excellent medic and report-writer in the galaxy, is following 36 people at Twitter and he's got 23 followers.

The only person in both categories is Marina Carminati (@marucarmi), an Italian producer and communications consultant living in New York who says she has worked with NBC News and the Today Show. Her website is at NewYorkOK.com, and she checks out as the owner of that domain. Ms Carminati publishes some information about herself here. In Italy she worked in TV and newspapers, and since coming to the US she has worked in those media and also in radio.

"After arriving in New York City, she created the radio show 'Medicine and Wellbeing' for radio ICN."

I wonder whether any medics we know of may have appeared on that show?

b said...

Lest we forget, Trump tweeted on 3 Dec 2015 that

"As a presidential candidate, I have instructed my long-time doctor to issue, withn two weeks, a full medical report-it will show perfection"

Then 11 days later he published the report, with the words

"I am proud to share this health report, written by the highly respected Dr. Jacob Bornstein of Lenox Hill Hospital. https://t.co/5RZa5of0TR"

...but Jacob Bornstein died several years ago, and Trump meant to refer to his son Harold Bornstein, who has supposedly been his medic since 1980.

In the report, Jacob Bornstein uses the letters MD and FAGC after his name. "FAGC" stands for "Fellow of the American College of Gastroenterologists", which he is NOT. He was once a fellow at said college, but his membership "lapsed" in 1995.

"When asked by MSNBC about using the title in his signature without maintaining membership, Bornstein said that the title 'has no value' but that he will continue to use it."

His knowledge of the rules of professional associations seems to be less than perfect. Good work by Rachel Maddow at MSNBC. Unfortunately she doesn't ask the questions

1) Why did his membership lapse in 1995? Was it just that he decided to stop paying his dues?

2) In claiming on Donald Trump's medical report that he is something that he isn't (namely a Fellow of the ACG), has he broken any professional rules?

Anonymous said...

Sorry to break it to you, but this @hbornst1 is a bot account. It's not anyone's personal Twitter account. It's of no interest or importance.

You might want to delete the post.

Joseph Cannon said...

Bots are multilingual? Bots know how to appreciate Lebanese goddesses? A bot would know how to become a follower of Marina Carminati, who is also a follower of this bot, and who is ALSO linked to Bornstein via Google+?

https://plus.google.com/100464088118387089051/about

Caro said...

Thai women are also beautiful.

I'm a feminist, but I figure that if I can enjoy pictures of men's bodies (http://bit.ly/2ba2Zzn), you can enjoy pictures of women's bodies.

Anonymous said...

I don't think it's Trump's doctor's actual Twitter account. Mediaite described it thusly: "Some kind of weird parody Twitter account using Bornstein’s name has existed since 2013. There’s not much to it… except for an even more amazing picture." Scroll down towards the bottom of the following article: http://www.mediaite.com/online/meet-harold-bornstein-personal-physician-to-donald-trump/

Also, doesn't look like the same guy to me (though admittedly very similar).

And this sounds like a mockery of Trump's use of superlatives: The most beautiful foto from the best journalist nel mondo

b said...

What are the reasons for thinking it's a fake account? The pictures seem to me to show the same man, who has used a photo from a few years ago for his Twitter account, which isn't an unusual thing to do. Andrew Husband makes no argument for his assertion at Mediaite.com that the account is a parody.

b said...

Andrew Husband, author of the Mediaite piece calling the @hbornst1 Twitter account a "parody", has a photo of Jill Stein as his own Twitter profile pic (@AndrewHusband). I have had a very low opinion of Stein ever since she was asked how Trump could be stopped and she answered about how to stop Clinton.

Anonymous said...

Good points b. After "researching" a little further, I found out that that photo actually a photo of Trump's Doc: http://heavy.com/news/2015/12/harold-bornstein-donald-trump-doctor-dr-letter-note-medical-record-physician-photos-bio-father-jacob-md-age-hair-tufts-medical-school-new-york-practice/

Maybe it is his Twitter account, too. Who knows? It doesn't seem too important a topic really.

Jotman said...

Joseph, @hbornst1 still looks more like a bot to me than anything else. There are whole bot **networks** on Twitter and some are fairly sophisticated. It wouldn't surprise me at all if a bot had corresponding account on another social media network.

However, I don't yet know what to make of @marucarmi. You might find this tweet of interest. https://twitter.com/marucarmi/status/676720873395625984

Joseph Cannon said...

jotman, I would say that your link proves the case: hbornst1 is our man.

Also, hbonrst1 of NY offered a review on TripAdvisor. He mentions his wife's 50th birthday, an age which matches up with the age range of The Most Amazing Doctor Ever. So that's that: So far, all of our tests have shown only positive results.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g152516-d185357-r4600554-One_Only_Palmilla-San_Jose_del_Cabo_Los_Cabos_Baja_California.html