President Donald Trump disclosed Monday that Florida Republican Rep. Neal Dunn had received a terminal heart diagnosis and was projected to die by June, before Trump personally connected the congressman with White House physicians who rushed him into emergency surgery.
Trump made the disclosure during a luncheon with the Kennedy Center Board of Members at the White House on March 16.
House Speaker Mike Johnson sat beside the president throughout the exchange.
Trump opened the discussion by referencing the Republican Party’s razor-thin House majority, telling reporters that managing such a slim margin presented serious challenges.
“We had it up to four,” Trump said of the GOP’s margin, “and then we had a death. And the death is very bad when you have a majority of two or three.”
Trump then began recounting the story of an unnamed lawmaker who had fallen gravely ill, before turning to Johnson and asking whether to reveal the congressman’s identity.
Johnson then identified him.
Johnson said the congressman had “real health challenges” and a “pretty grim diagnosis,” but had continued to come to work.
Trump pushed Johnson to name the diagnosis directly. “I think it was a terminal diagnosis,” Johnson replied.
“He would be dead by June,” Trump stated, followed by Johnson responding, “OK, that wasn’t public.”
The congressman in question is Neal Dunn, 73, who represents Florida’s 2nd Congressional District in the state’s reliably Republican Panhandle region.
Dunn is a urologist and former Army surgeon who was first elected to Congress in 2016.
Trump said he was troubled by the news both personally and politically. “It was bad because I liked him,” Trump said. “Number two, it was bad because I needed his vote.”
After learning of Dunn’s condition, Trump said he contacted his White House medical team.
“White House doctors are incredible, and they’ve helped me with other people,” Trump said.
Johnson said, “Within a number of hours they took him to emergency surgery and the man has a new lease on life.”
Dunn received treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, located just outside Washington, D.C.
“It was a long operation. They gave him more stents and more everything that you can have,” Trump said.
Johnson said, “He acts like he’s 30 years younger.”
“We thought we’d seen a ghost.” Johnson said he had spoken with Dunn over the weekend and described him as “encouraged and thankful.”
Trump said Dunn had personally told him he was “terminal” with a “really bad heart” and that doctors had said “there’s nothing they can do.”
Trump went on to say that Dunn had told Johnson, “However long I live I’m gonna be voting for you.”
In January, Dunn announced he would not seek re-election after five terms in Congress.
Fox News reported that in a statement at the time, the congressman said he wanted to “pass the torch to new conservative leaders, return home to Panama City, and spend more precious time with my family and our beloved grandchildren.”
Dunn is married to his wife, Leah. The couple has three sons and five grandchildren.
Dunn is a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and serves as its vice chair.
He also sits on the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.
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