Trump walks toward Marine One to depart for Walter Reed Medical Center on October 10, 2025.
Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
From suggesting bleach as a COVID treatment to making unproven claims about Tylenol causing autism, President Donald Trump’s relationship with the medical community is pretty fraught. But apparently there’s one instance in which the president trusts doctors completely: when they tell him they’ve run some unspecified tests on unspecified parts of his body and they all show he’s astoundingly healthy.
Trump has had a lot of medical drama this year; after months of speculation about his persistent hand bruise and leg swelling, the White House disclosed in June that he has chronic venous insufficiency. Then on October 10, he went to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for what White House officials called a “routine yearly checkup.” This raised some questions right off the bat, as Trump already had his annual physical in April. A memo from the White House physician, Dr. Sean Barbabella, led to even more confusion, as it said vaguely that the October visit “included advanced imaging, laboratory testing, and preventative health assessments” and the results were all “exceptional.”
When a reporter asked Trump if “advanced imaging” meant an MRI, he said “yes.” So why did the president have this test? He seemed totally unconcerned with such details.
“The doctor said it was the best result he has ever seen as a doctor,” Trump said on November 14. “I have no idea what they analyzed. But whatever they analyzed, they analyzed it well and they said that I had as good a result as they’ve ever seen.”
Trump: I had an MRI and the result was outstanding.
Reporter: Was it your brain?
Trump: I have no idea what they analyzed, but whatever they analyzed, they analyzed it well. pic.twitter.com/uMhkBu0RUU
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 15, 2025
By November 30, the elective MRI had become more of a political issue, as Democrats including Minnesota governor Tim Walz called on Trump to release details on the tests and their results. But Trump couldn’t even say what part of his body was scanned.
“It wasn’t the brain because I took a cognitive test and aced it,” he told a reporter. Barbabella said Trump got a perfect score on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment in April, but it’s unclear if Trump was referring to this or additional testing for cognitive impairment.
.@POTUS nukes the Fake News on his MRI: “It’s perfect. It’s like my phone call where I got impeached, it’s absolutely perfect… It wasn’t the brain because I took a cognitive test and I aced it. I got a perfect mark, which you would be incapable of doing.” 😂🤣 pic.twitter.com/gK6FLfkKr8
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 30, 2025
On Monday, the White House finally tried to clear up the confusion — and failed. A new memo from Barbabella began:
As part of President Donald J. Trump’s comprehensive executive physical, advanced imaging was performed because men in his age group benefit from a thorough evaluation of cardiovascular and abdominal health. The purpose of this imaging is preventative: to identify issues early, confirm overall health, and ensure he maintains long-term vitality and function.
Summary of President Donald J. Trump’s Advanced Imaging Results
“Overall, his cardiovascular system shows excellent health.” pic.twitter.com/JVdXNRLhuh
— Olga Nesterova (@onestpress) December 1, 2025
While the memo offers some clues about what testing Trump received, with references to “no evidence of arterial narrowing” and “abdominal imaging,” it still doesn’t name any specific tests. And multiple doctors told the press that they remain stumped, since “preventative” imaging is not recommended for people with no symptoms. Such testing could produce false positives, leading to stress for the patient and unnecessary procedures.
Dr. Ron Blankstein, a preventative cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, told the New York Times that the memo suggests Trump might have had a stress test to rule out heart disease:
Dr. Blankstein also highlighted the phrase “no evidence of arterial narrowing limiting blood flow.” It suggests, he said, that the president underwent a stress test, which could mean a doctor suspected or wanted to rule out heart disease. Most standard M.R.I. exams, he said, do not show the coronary arteries.
But there is a specialized M.R.I. scan, known as a cardiac stress exam, in which patients are given a medication that increases blood flow to the heart and then asked to lie in an M.R.I. machine for a scan. If the results are abnormal, that can indicate one or more coronary arteries is narrowed. But, Dr. Blankstein said, “a normal stress test, while reassuring that there is no critical flow limiting disease, does not rule out the possibility of coronary artery disease.”
“Stress tests are often not required in individuals who do not have symptoms” or cardiac disease, he added.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who was Dick Cheney’s cardiologist for more than 30 years, agreed in an interview with CNN, saying that there “really is no preventative cardiac MRI” and the unnecessary abdominal imaging is odd as well.
“This obviously was performed in response to some clinical concern, which is fine. Things happen to people as we all get older, and the president is almost 80,” Reiner said, adding that the White House’s bizarre “drip by drip” release of information is just heightening concerns about what actually be a common health issues. “Instead of this kind of evasive, almost laughable kind of note, just spell out what happened,” he said.
.@JReinerMD w/ CNN Anchors @brikeilarcnn and @Boris_Sanchez
Focus: MRI imaging performed on President Trump
Why the piece by piece, drop by dop reporting?
12.1.25 310 pm ET pic.twitter.com/xeIuddhyr9
— Jeff Storobinsky (@JeffStorobinsky) December 1, 2025
That does make sense, but it seems unlikely that the White House will take the doctor’s PR advice. From Dr. Harold Bornstein’s 2016 proclamation that Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency,” to Barbabella’s vague one-page memos, these “evasive, almost laughable kind of notes” are the only kind of Trump health updates we’ve ever received.
Sign Up for the Intelligencer Newsletter
Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.
Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice