White House not committing to release medical report, as aides grow more cagey about Trump’s health

A photo of US. President Donald Trump’s left hand. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

The White House has yet to release any results from U.S. President Donald Trump’s most recent physical exam, a break from its own past practice that’s likely to fuel further questions about his health and fitness.

Trump, who is the oldest president to be inaugurated, declared on social media that he was in perfect health following an hourslong visit on Tuesday to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

But despite promising to provide a summary of the checkup in “the next day or so,” the White House has since offered no additional information — nor has it confirmed that Trump’s physician plans at any point to offer a public readout.

The three-day silence marks a departure from the White House’s handling of Trump’s prior physical exams. After a visit to Walter Reed last April, personal physician Dr. Sean Barbabella summarized the results in a memo released two days later. When Trump returned for another exam in October, Barbabella’s declaration that he remained in “exceptional health” was published later the same day.

This time, Trump has so far served as the only source of information about his own health just weeks out from his 80th birthday.

“It’s unimaginable to me that the White House would not release a statement about the president’s health — even the most basic statement,” said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor at The George Washington School of Medicine & Health Sciences who was the longtime cardiologist for former vice president Dick Cheney. “It’s going to really spark concerns about the president’s fitness for office if the White House refuses to disclose his medical report.”

Trump has long been cagey about any personal health problems, placing a great deal of value on portraying himself as a pinnacle of strength and vitality. On the campaign trail and in the Oval Office, Trump has made his vigor core to his political identity, boasting frequently about his mental and physical well-being. Past medical readouts often reflected this attitude: In Trump’s first term, then-presidential physician Dr. Ronny Jackson effusively praised his “incredible genes” during an hour-long press conference solely about Trump’s health, held at the president’s insistence.

But as he approaches his eighth decade, Trump’s visible signs of aging — and at-times erratic behaviour — have nevertheless intensified scrutiny of his health and demands for more disclosure. And after intense doubts swirled about the mental acuity of former president Joe Biden, the American public is perhaps particularly sensitive nowadays to questions about the commander-in-chief’s physical and cognitive health.

Trump suffers from frequent bruising on both of his hands that he’s taken to covering with heavy makeup. After photos last year captured swelling in his legs, the White House disclosed that Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition found in older patients. He was spotted with a rash on his neck in March, which Barbabella attributed to a “preventative skin treatment,” though he did not specify why Trump had needed the treatment in the first place. During several meetings and events over the last year, Trump has appeared to doze off — occurrences that he and the White House have vigorously denied. (The president has previously said that the media has “got me in a blink” and quipped that sometimes meetings get “pretty boring.”)

The visit to Walter Reed on Tuesday also marked Trump’s third in the last 13 months — an unusual cadence compared with past presidents’ typical practice of sitting for one exam a year (his Truth Social post after the appointment called it a “6 month physical”). Trump has visited a dentist in Florida twice this year as well, offering little explanation besides insisting the appointments were routine procedures.

While none of those conditions appear alarming on their own, medical experts say, the White House’s reluctance to provider fuller details only makes it more difficult to allay any bigger concerns.

“It would imply that there is information they don’t want the public to hear,” Reiner said of the lack of disclosure about Trump’s most recent exam. “It intensifies the distrust in their transparency.”

The White House declined to comment on the record. In his Truth Social post earlier this week, Trump wrote after his checkup that “Everything checked out PERFECTLY.” Aides have waved off concerns about his fitness and even mocked concerns, rejecting any suggestion that Trump is in anything but peak health.

“It’s 9:30 PM on a Saturday night and President Trump is still in the Oval Office working hard for the American people,” White House communications director Steven Cheung posted on X last weekend. “He’s simply one of one.”

Barbabella has offered similarly effusive praise in his memos following prior exams, though he has not been as unequivocal as the president. The physician wrote last April that Trump “remains in excellent health,” attributing it in part to his “frequent victories in golf events.”

In October, Barbabella praised Trump as having the “cardiovascular vitality” of someone 14 years younger than his chronological age.

“President Donald J. Trump remains in exceptional physical health,” he wrote in a summary of his exam.

Still, Barbabella’s readouts have offered high-level details that medical experts said were critical to ruling out major health concerns and providing some assurance to voters who have grown more attuned to the state of Trump’s health. A February poll found that six in 10 Americans believe Trump has become more erratic with age.

And in recent months, Democrats have shown more willingness to make Trump’s fitness a chief political concern. After a series of posts last month targeting Iran — including a threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight” and urging the nation to “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell,” some Democratic lawmakers and other critics revived calls for invoking the 25th Amendment and removing Trump from office.

Republicans have dismissed talk of the 25th Amendment, rendering that prospect moot. Trump’s allies have also defended his rhetoric, arguing such threats are central to his negotiating strategy and insisting that he remains as physically and mentally fit as ever before.

Still, Trump has a history of concealing the true nature of past health issues. After contracting Covid-19 during his first term, Trump and his doctors repeatedly offered rosy portrayals of his condition, even as he had to be hospitalized and at some points put on supplemental oxygen.

Those optimistic accounts were punctured when Trump’s then-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, offered a more sobering analysis — which he tried to do anonymously, suggesting he did not have official clearance to do so.

“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 at the time.