![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/president-donald-trump-boards-air-force-one-friday-may-15-20-GB5D57S2XRAERNL64K36KDN6NM.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPresident Donald Trump had another medical exam on Tuesday (local time) putting his health under renewed public scrutiny as he has worked to dismiss concerns over his age and stamina.<\/p>\n
The 79-year-old president spent more than three hours at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for what the White House described as preventive medical and dental checkups. It was Trump’s fourth publicly disclosed medical exam since he returned to office for a second term, and it comes as he tries to project strength ahead of midterm elections that will test his sway with voters.<\/p>\n
In a social media post after the visit, Trump said that he had just finished his \u201c6 month physical\u201d and that \u201cEverything checked out PERFECTLY.\u201d<\/p>\n
For decades, administrations have released selected results from presidential physicals, offering the public a glimpse at the commander-in-chief\u2019s health. But the results are filtered through the White House and must be approved by the president, raising questions about what the public does and doesn’t get to see.<\/p>\n
Trump, a Republican, turns 80 next month and was the oldest person elected US president. His immediate predecessor, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, was 82 when he left office, dropping out of the 2024 presidential race because of widespread concerns he was too old for the job.<\/p>\n
A Washington Post\/ABC News\/Ipsos poll conducted in April found that less than half of US adults think Trump has the mental sharpness or physical health to serve effectively as president.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think concern for the president\u2019s physical health is probably at an all-time high, and I think advanced physical age is the No. 1 concern,\u201d said Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, who served as a White House physician for more than a decade under Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.<\/p>\n
For a president of Trump\u2019s age, a complete physical would be expected to include advanced heart testing, screening for common cancers and a cognitive assessment, along with basics like height, weight and blood pressure, Kuhlman said.<\/p>\n
The White House has not disclosed what the visit entailed but expressed confidence in what it will show.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump is the sharpest and most accessible President in American history who is working nonstop to solve problems and deliver on his promises, and he remains in excellent health,\u201d White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement.<\/p>\n
No law requiring presidents to disclose their medical records<\/p>\n
In the weeks leading up to his visit, Trump has been saying he feels as good as he did five decades ago \u2014 even as he jokes about his fondness for fast food and his minimal exercise regimen. Yet he\u2019s also sensitive to perceptions about his age, noting that he takes extra caution descending the steps from Air Force One to avoid headlines about a stumble.<\/p>\n
There is no law requiring presidents to publicise their health records, and the degree of transparency has varied by administration. Trump\u2019s past reports have been criticised for offering scant detail and providing statistics that some medical experts eyed with skepticism.<\/p>\n
At public appearances, Trump is often seen wearing makeup to conceal bruising on his hands, which the White House attributes to handshaking and regular aspirin use. He has sometimes appeared drowsy during meetings and closed his eyes for long stretches, though he denies having fallen asleep.<\/p>\n
Trump often boasts of having \u201caced\u201d cognitive tests while frequently deriding Biden, who faced questions about his mental acuity. Biden and his aides pushed back aggressively against doubts raised about his fitness for office.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One, Friday, May 15, 2026, at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
Some of Trump\u2019s previous physicals have included the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, used to screen for dementia and cognitive impairment. His physicians reported a score of 30 out of 30 for him at 2018 and 2025 checkups.<\/p>\n
Yet critics have pointed to Trump\u2019s meandering speeches and sometimes bellicose rhetoric as evidence of cognitive decline.<\/p>\n
Last month, a statement from more than 30 neurologists, psychiatrists and other medical experts \u2014 who acknowledged they\u2019ve never examined him \u2014 said Trump was mentally unfit to serve and warned of an \u201cincreasingly dangerous decline\u201d in his behavior based on what they called \u201cobjectively observable signs of serious medical concern.\u2033<\/p>\n
\u201cAny so-called medical professionals engaging in armchair diagnosis or false speculation for political purposes are clearly breaking the Hippocratic Oath they\u2019ve sworn to,\u201d Ingle said.<\/p>\n
Just like any other patient, presidents get to choose what\u2019s disclosed about their health, said Sara Rosenthal, a bioethicist at the University of Kentucky who studies presidential health. Questions about transparency have become more acute as America elects aging presidents like Trump and Biden, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we can expect very little disclosure about the true health status of any president unless they\u2019re in perfect health,\u201d said Rosenthal, who has suggested an independent medical organisation to review and report on the health of the president and those in the line of succession.<\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including Europe\u2019s record breaking heatwave, and the race to save seven people trapped in a cave. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n
‘Nothing should be hidden’<\/p>\n
Trump’s first medical report in his second term was released last April. In July, he was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition in older adults that causes blood to pool in his veins. Photographs have shown the president with swollen feet, ankles and calves, described by the White House as a symptom of chronic venous insufficiency leading to \u201cmild swelling\u201d in his lower legs.<\/p>\n
Following his last publicly disclosed exam, described as a routine follow-up last October, Trump\u2019s physician issued a one-page summary saying the president was in \u201cexceptional health\u201d without divulging many specific results.<\/p>\n
The frequency of Trump’s medical checkups is not uncommon for someone his age, according to S. Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois-Chicago, who has studied the health of past presidents. It’s part of a strategy to catch problems while they\u2019re still treatable, Olshansky said.<\/p>\n
Olshansky says the public deserves to see more than White House medical summaries that \u201cmay be subject to editorial discretion.\u201d Full, unredacted medical records should be made public, he said: \u201cNothing should be hidden.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump had another medical exam on Tuesday (local time) putting his health under renewed public scrutiny…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[65,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-446973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}