Trump refused anaesthesia for colonoscopy to avoid handing control to Pence, new book claims

One-term president took previously unexplained 2019 trip to Walter Reed medical centre

Donald Trump refused to go under anesthesia when he had a colonoscopy because he did not want to hand power over to Mike Pence, a new book claims.

Mr Trump’s former press secretary Stephanie Grisham says that the president did not want anyone to know about the medical procedure, which she does not specifically name, because he did not want to be “the butt of a joke” for late-night comedians.

Ms Grisham writes in her new book I’ll Take Your Questions Now, that Mr Trump underwent a “very common procedure” for which a “patient is sometimes put under”.

And she writes that it was the same procedure that George W Bush had during his time in the White House when temporarily signed over power to vice president Dick Cheney as he underwent a 2007 colonoscopy.

But she says that Mr Trump, who took an unexplained 2019 trip to Walter Reed medical centre, did not want to do the same with his own vice president, and also refused to take the opportunity to promote good health and cancer screenings.

Ms Grisham wrote that “as with COVID, he was too wrapped up in his own ego and his own delusions about his invincibility”, according to a manuscript of the book obtained by The New York Times.

Mr Trump has responded to the book and its series of amazing claims about his time in the White House by attacking Grisham and her job performance.

“Stephanie didn’t have what it takes and that was obvious from the beginning,” Mr Trump said through spokesperson Liz Harrington, who unlike the former president has not been banned from Twitter.

“She became very angry and bitter after her break up and as time went on she was seldom relied upon, or even thought about.”

And Mr Trump, who was impeached a record two times, added: “She had big problems and we felt that she should work out those problems for herself. Now, like everyone else, she gets paid by a radical left-leaning publisher to say bad and untrue things.”