During his recent physical examination, President Donald Trump expressed satisfaction with the results of the tests conducted, especially highlighting his heart, soul, and cognitive abilities. In addition, he seized the opportunity to make a comparison with his predecessor, Joe Biden.
At 78 years old, Trump holds the record as the oldest U.S. president to be inaugurated for a second term. His comprehensive five-hour check-up at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center included a wide range of tests to evaluate his health.
‘Overall, I felt I was in very good shape. A good heart, a good soul, a very good soul,’ Trump said. He also noted that he took a cognitive test.
‘I don´t know what to tell you other than I got every answer right,’ he said.
However, medical reports from White House doctors may not be ready until the weekend.
Trump emphasized the importance of mental acuity screenings, stating that this is a priority for the American people. He also criticized Biden for reportedly declining to undergo such tests.
‘I was there for a long time,’ Trump said. ‘I think I did very well.’
The physical at Walter Reed National Medical Center in Maryland was expected to be administered by Trump’s new personal physician, Dr. Sean Barbabella, who has extensive combat trauma experience, from serving in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
Trump enters office older than Joe Biden was four years ago – and will set the record for the country’s oldest president before he finishes his term in January 2029.
That means, like Biden, there will be added scrutiny about his health.
Despite long questioning predecessor Biden’s physical and mental capacity, Trump has routinely kept basic facts about his own health shrouded in secrecy – shying away from traditional presidential transparency on medical issues.
He said he believes the doctor’s report on his latest physical would be ready on Sunday – though, if history is any indication, that may offer little more than flattery with scarce detail.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said while Trump was still being examined that a ‘readout from the White House physician’ on his health that would be released ‘as soon as we possibly can’ and suggested it´d be comprehensive.
Trump went straight from the examination to Air Force One to fly to Florida for the weekend.
Speaking to reporters midflight, he said doctors offered him ‘a little bit’ of advice on lifestyle changes that could improve his health, though he didn’t elaborate on what that was.
The finished medical report would be the first public information on Trump’s health since an assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
Rather than release medical records at that time, Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson – a staunch supporter who served as his White House physician and once joked in the White House briefing room that Trump could live to be 200 if he had a healthier diet – wrote a memo describing a gunshot wound to Trump´s right ear.
In a subsequent interview with CBS last August, Trump said he´d ‘very gladly’ release his medical records, but never did.
Trump is three years younger than Biden. But on Inauguration Day of his second term in January, Trump was five months older than Biden was during his 2021 inauguration – making Trump the nation’s oldest president to be sworn into office.
During the first physical of his first term – conducted on January 12, 2018 – Trump took the unprecedented step of sitting for a cognitive exam.
‘As far as I know, no president has ever had a cognitive assessment as president of the United States,’ said Jackson at the time.
‘If anybody is aware of it happening before, then they have information I don’t have, because I looked pretty extensively.’
He informed the briefing room that Trump scored a 30 out of 30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.
‘The reason that we did the cognitive assessment is, plain and simple, because the president asked me to do it,’ Jackson said. ‘He came to me and he said, is there something we can do – a test, or some type of screen that we can do – to assess my cognitive ability?’
In early June 2024, Trump called on Biden to take a cognitive test – and that was before Biden’s disastrous late June debate performance, which led to the Democrat dropping out of the presidential race.
The Republican nominee memorably called on Biden to take the test, while flubbing Jackson’s name – calling him ‘Ronny Johnson.’
Months before, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was peppered with questions when Biden’s 2024 annual physical did not include a cognitive test.
‘The president does not need a cognitive test,’ Jean-Pierre said, arguing that was Biden’s doctor’s assessment. ‘He passes a cognitive test every day, every day,’ she added.
After the bungled Atlanta debate, Jean-Pierre gave a similar answer saying Biden’s doctors have said a cognitive test is ‘not necessary.’
There have also been health questions raised around what appears to be a bruise on Trump’s right hand, which is often covered up by makeup.
Some have alleged that it looks like a bruise left from an IV procedure.
In February the White House supplied an answer to DailyMail.com – the president has been getting bruised there from shaking so many hands.
Biden had a similar bruise on his left hand weeks before he left office, which still remains a mystery.
His White House was quick to answer a query when Biden was spotted with weird lines on his face – divulging he had been put on a CPAP machine in June 2023 to help with his sleep apnea.
One question that will definitely be answered from Trump’s physical Friday is whether he’s still considered obese.
The 6-foot-3 Trump weighed 239 pounds at his first physical, in January 2018, but then teetered into the obese category in 2019 at 243 pounds. At his 2020 physical Trump clocked in at 244 pounds.
In 2018, Jackson memorably explained how Trump, then 71, was still in such good health despite his love for McDonald’s and Diet Cokes – and his refusal to exercise.
‘It’s called genetics, I don’t know, some people have just great genes,’ Jackson replied. ‘I told the president if he had a healthier diet over the next 20 years he might live to be 200 years old.’
Jackson also attributed Trump’s good health to the fact that he’s never smoked nor consumed alcohol.
Cholesterol was an issue for the president, but it had gotten down to a healthy level by the time he had his June 2020 physical.
After that, however, Trump had a brush with death – as he was hospitalized at Walter Reed that October after contracting COVID-19.
That episode also showcased how the White House is selective about what health information is given to the American public.
A subsequent report in The New York Times, released in February 2021 after Trump left office, found that Trump was much sicker than the White House had let on, with officials believing he would need to be put on a ventilator.
Jackson’s replacement, Dr. Sean Conley, painted such a sunny picture about Trump’s condition that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows tried to give a blind quote to the press pool, warning it was worse.
‘The president’s vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning, and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care,’ Meadows said. ‘We’re still not on a clear path to a full recovery.’
During Trump’s 2024 campaign, which he launched in November 2022, he only offered one brief disclosure about his health – even following the July 13 assassination attempt in which a bullet grazed his ear.
On November 20, 2023 – the same day Biden turned 81 – Trump released a letter from his physician, Dr. Bruce Aronwald, a fixture at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club.
The letter touted Trump’s weight loss and said his health was ‘excellent.’
Aronwald added that Trump’s ‘cognitive exams were exceptional.’
