Something is up with Donald Trump‘s health. This shouldn’t be a surprise: he’s days away from his 80th birthday, hates exercise, and subsists on a diet of cheeseburgers. Frankly, it’d be a miracle if he weren’t suffering multiple health problems.
But what’s actually going on with the president is constantly obscured, as Trump is extremely concerned with people thinking he’s as vigorous, energetic, and quick-witted as a man half his age.
For example, an expose in The New York Times earlier this year outlined multiple concerns about Trump’s health, age, and fitness for the job. Trump reacted furiously, yelling that he’d had a “PERFECT PHYSICAL EXAM AND A COMPREHENSIVE COGNITIVE TEST.”
President Trump will undergo a physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Tuesday.
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) May 26, 2026
Source: White House Press Pool pic.twitter.com/9fv6gv8I5T
Do you believe him? Well, in a telling move, Trump is due back in Walter Reed Medical Center today for a full medical exam, his third in just over a year. Trump was last given a full once-over in April 2025, before being summoned back that October for a “scheduled follow-up”.
Concern has been rising that Trump is suffering some kind of physical ailment, with pictures showing unexplained bruises and red marks on his neck and hands, with the official excuses about what’s caused them sounding incredibly flimsy.
Serious questions are also being raised about his mental competence after his incessant, garbled, and borderline incoherent late-night rants on Truth Social. Recent polls indicate that most Americans believe that Trump is no longer mentally competent enough to fulfil his role as president.
yikes! a day ahead of his visit to Walter Reed, Trump's discolored hand is looking rough
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 25, 2026
(Ken Nishimura/AFP via Getty) pic.twitter.com/J91Oxx8JsJ
“A lack of candor from the White House”
Former White House doctors are sounding a note of concern, with Dick Cheney’s former cardiologist, Jonathan Reiner, telling the Washington Post:
“This White House just doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge any physical ailment, but older people develop medical issues, and the President is almost 80 years old. There just seems to be a lack of candor from the White House.”
Jeffrey Kuhlman, ormer physician to presidents Bill Clinton, George W Bush, and Obama, added:
“After a decade of delusion, deceit, denial, or delay from the administrations and White House physicians regarding presidential evaluations, my expectation bar is pretty low. I hope they are at least transparent and truthful.”
Hoping that the Trump administration will be “transparent and truthful” about anything, let alone Trump’s health, is being insanely optimistic.
Unfortunately for Trump, he’s painted himself into this corner and absolutely cannot show weakness. He spent years slamming Joe Biden for being too old to be president, holding up every mumbled speech and stiff motion as proof he was unable to carry out his duties. Worse, they were absolutely right! Joe Biden was too old.
Admitting that Trump now suffers from the same health issues as Biden would be a tacit admission that the 25th Amendment needs to be invoked before any more damage to the United States (and the world in general) is done. But, for them, admitting weakness would be far worse than plunging the planet into chaos, so here we are, with them having to hold up this wobbly, sleepy old geezer as a picture of vitality and dynamism.
