Trump faces health questions ahead of another Walter Reed trip
President Donald Trump is expected to undergo his third scheduled medical exam in 13 months on Tuesday, after outside doctors said they had persistent questions about the nearly 80-year-old president’s health and fitness.
Trump, the oldest inaugural president, is scheduled to visit Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for a medical and dental visit, the White House announced earlier this month. The president went to Walter Reed in April 2025 for his annual physical and returned in October for what officials described as a “scheduled follow-up”; That sparked weeks of investigations into Trump’s diagnosis and procedures that the White House has repeatedly ignored.
Nearly three months after the visit, Trump and the White House announced that the president had received a CT scan. His doctor, Sean Barbabella, called the imaging preventative “to definitively rule out any cardiovascular problems.”
The White House has a 24-hour medical team that can provide special attention to the president if necessary, while Walter Reed has facilities for advanced imaging and other procedures. The White House said Trump has made two visits to a dentist in Florida since January, which officials said were for routine cleanings and maintenance.
The White House has repeatedly said the president is in “excellent health,” including in responses to questions this weekend; He cited medical reports prepared by White House doctors, including one from Barbabella in October that said Trump “remains in exceptional health.”
Trump’s health and fitness have become central to his political identity, in part because the president has consistently touted it by trying to turn persistent doubts about his age into a point of strength. Trump campaigned in 2023 and 2024 by asserting that he was strong, especially compared to then-President Joe Biden, regularly bragging about his results on cognitive tests and attacking his opponent as “Sleepy Joe.”
But as an aging president, Biden faces some nagging questions: Whether he is mentally and physically fit to fulfill the duties of commander in chief. Independent doctors asked why Trump’s hands were repeatedly bruised, his legs were swollen and whether his occasional sleepiness was a sign of a deeper problem, and they said they found the White House’s explanations inadequate.
“The White House doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge any physical ailments, but older people have medical problems and the president is almost 80,” said Jonathan Reiner, former vice president Dick Cheney’s longtime cardiologist. “There seems to be a lack of sincerity in the White House.”
A growing portion of the public also has doubts. A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll last month found that 40 percent of Americans think Trump has the mental acuity to serve as president; this was down from 47 percent last September. Forty-four percent of Americans thought Trump had the physical health to do the job; This rate was 54 percent last September.
Although annual visits to Walter Reed have become a modern tradition, presidents are not required to disclose their health records. Some lawmakers in both parties have called for greater oversight of top executives, such as creating an independent commission that could evaluate the president’s health.
In addition to boasting about his physical health, Trump regularly touts his results on cognitive tests and insists the tests confirm his fitness. He repeated claims about his cognitive scores as recently as Friday’s rally.
He also referenced past diagnoses from his doctors, including Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), who served as White House physician during Trump’s first term. Trump said Jackson told him that Trump was healthier than his predecessors Barack Obama and George W. Bush; Both were at least 15 years younger than Trump when he first took office. Both former presidents had consistent exercise routines; This contrasted with Trump, who avoided exercise other than golf.
“I don’t care if he’s my doctor and says I’m the healthiest person he’s ever been – Ronny, am I healthier than these guys here?” Trump said while standing in front of the U.S. Naval Academy football team in February.
“Yes sir,” Jackson replied.
“Okay. See, that’s why I love him,” Trump said.
Aides tout his energy, including this weekend when they announced his commitment to working through Saturday.
Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and some of his top aides, such as Mehmet Oz, repeatedly joked about scrutiny of the president’s health.
“Dr. Oz looked at his medical records and said he had the highest testosterone level ever seen in a person over 70,” Kennedy said in a podcast this year with former White House official Katie Miller. He later repeated a private joke, authorities said.
In a sign of how seriously the White House is taking the issue, press secretary Karoline Leavitt herself addressed questions about the president’s health before he went on maternity leave this month. Trump also spoke directly to some reporters following stories about his health.
The White House became increasingly aggressive as rumors spread about Trump’s health; This coincided with periods when the sometimes highly visible president suddenly lowered his public profile.
In early April, hundreds of thousands of social media users amplified claims that Trump had been taken to Walter Reed, drawing the ire of White House officials who said the president was being isolated to monitor search and rescue operations in Iran. The White House later created a digital “Wall of Shame” criticizing social media influencers who fueled allegations about the hospital visit. The page also featured reporters and news organizations noting facts about the situation, such as Trump not yet making public statements.
“The response was necessary because this was clearly an organized disinformation campaign peddled by left-wing accounts,” Leavitt told The Washington Post last month. “Spreading false and defamatory disinformation about the President is dangerous, and the White House will always hold people accountable for their egregious lies.”
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, which studies how misinformation spreads, said Trump was a victim of misinformation. He said that the president also contributed to this.
“Conspiracy theories may be true,” Jamieson said, implying that Trump’s political career has been marred by health problems, some of his own making. “It is entirely possible that unexplained absences are worth investigating.”
In interviews, many doctors who treat presidents and other VIPs said they did not trust the White House’s process of releasing information about Trump, while some also raised doubts about Biden.
“After a decade of misrepresentation, deception, denial or delay by administrations and White House physicians regarding presidential evaluations, my expectation bar is pretty low,” said Jeffrey Kuhlman, who served as physician to former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama. “I hope they are at least transparent and accurate.”
In interviews with The Post, Kuhlman and other doctors listed several questions they were focusing on leading up to Trump’s final visit to Walter Reed.
mental fitness
Trump praised his performance on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which is used to screen for dementia or cognitive decline. The president said he was subject to evaluation during his first administration because of persistent questions about his mental health.
“I don’t mind being remembered as a brilliant, completely tyrannical dictator, but I don’t want to be remembered as a fool either,” he said at a rally on Friday. He claimed that he would outperform Obama and Biden, adding that “all presidents and vice presidential candidates should be forced to take a cognitive test and an intelligence test.”
Democrats have repeatedly called for Trump to undergo an independent medical evaluation, citing his sometimes shocking statements, including his latest threat to end Iran’s “civilization.” Some doctors say more cognitive testing is also necessary given the president’s age.
“In addition to cognitive screening testing, further screening of cognitive executive function may be necessary because we know that 80-year-olds experience declines in memory, judgment, processing speed and spatial visualization,” said Kuhlman, who detailed his experiences treating presidents in a book called “Transforming Presidential Healthcare.”
swollen legs
Reiner said he had concerns about the president’s visibly swollen legs, which became apparent last summer. Last July, the White House said Trump had developed chronic venous insufficiency, a mild but chronic disease related to his age; This is a rare acknowledgment of a presidential health issue.
Reiner noted that this situation was not mentioned at all in Trump’s medical report in April 2025. If the condition was present at the time, he said, it raises questions about whether doctors missed or failed to disclose the diagnosis.
Alternatively, if Trump’s legs were swollen in the weeks after his April exam, that would indicate a condition called acute edema, and “that usually requires an in-depth evaluation to make sure you don’t have conditions like congestive heart failure,” Reiner said.
There was nothing written about this situation in the president’s October medical report.
rotten hands
The White House said the recurring bruises on Trump’s hands were not a sign of a more serious medical condition, saying it was due to Trump taking aspirin every day and shaking hands frequently.
Reiner said he did not find these explanations convincing.
“If you’re taking too much aspirin, you’re probably taking less aspirin. So that explanation doesn’t make much sense to me,” Reiner said. “We also saw a similar bruise on his left hand from time to time and I doubt he shook hands with his left hand,” he added.
Age-related accommodations
As he approaches his 80th birthday, Biden officials have made changes to his routine, such as scheduling events in the middle of the day instead of the evening and using shorter stairs to access Air Force One.
Asked this weekend whether the White House had made any adjustments given Trump’s age, officials said no adjustments were needed.
Pulmonologist and MS NOW medical analyst Vin Gupta said both presidents show signs of healthy aging, citing Biden’s weekend bike rides, Trump’s regular golf outings and both men’s travel schedules. But he said it’s also important to consider the scope of their business.
“The more important question is not whether they age normally, but whether they maintain the sustained executive function, cognitive resilience and adaptive decision-making required for the presidency,” said Gupta, who is discussing joining the Biden administration in a top health post. “These are different standards, and in my view both men have shown enough public evidence of decline in these areas to raise legitimate concerns about fitness for office.”
Visit frequency
There was no modern precedent for Trump’s second physical examination at Walter Reed last year; presidents generally traveled only once a year unless they had an emergency. Nearly three months after the visit, and after initially telling reporters that he had undergone an MRI examination, Trump and the White House announced that the president had received a CT scan as part of his evaluation.
Doctors asked whether the White House had concealed other important findings, such as whether Trump had visited the hospital privately.
“He never made an undisclosed visit to Walter Reed,” Leavitt told The Post last month.
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