{"id":194132,"date":"2026-03-16T22:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T22:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/194132\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T22:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T22:49:10","slug":"trump-discloses-florida-republicans-terminal-diagnosis-in-meandering-talk-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/194132\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump discloses Florida Republican\u2019s \u2018terminal\u2019 diagnosis in meandering talk | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump on Monday publicly revealed details about a Republican congressman\u2019s \u201cterminal\u201d diagnosis that could have left him \u201cdead by June\u201d, prompting Mike Johnson<\/a>, speaker of the House, to say: \u201cThat wasn\u2019t public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump touched on Neal Dunn\u2019s health during a meandering press conference at the White House held alongside leaders of the Kennedy Center and other top Republicans, in which he also discussed topics including the performing arts venue\u2019s upcoming renovation, the breast cancer diagnosis<\/a> of Susan Wiles, his chief of staff, and the war with Iran.<\/p>\n

His comments about the 73-year-old Florida<\/a> representative came as Republicans struggle to maintain their majority in the House of Representatives, which they control with just one seat, with three seats vacant.<\/p>\n

The historically small majority has made health scares and any other event that can force a lawmaker to resign or retire a pressing concern for Republican leaders, ahead of the November midterms in which Democrats are vying to take back the chamber.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had one man who was very ill. It looked like he wasn\u2019t going to make it,\u201d Trump said as he sat beside Johnson.<\/p>\n

With Trump\u2019s urging, Johnson then began talking about Dunn\u2019s health and how the congressman decided to remain in the House despite being given a \u201cgrim\u201d outlook.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf others got this diagnosis, they would be apt to go home and retire,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was the diagnosis?\u201d Trump asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was a terminal diagnosis,\u201d Johnson replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would be dead by June,\u201d Trump interjected, prompting the speaker to say: \u201cOK, that wasn\u2019t public, but yeah, OK. It was grim, that\u2019s what I was going to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president then said Dunn was afflicted by \u201ca heart problem\u201d, and after finding out about it, connected the congressman with White House doctors for \u201ca long operation\u201d where they \u201cgave him more stents\u201d.<\/p>\n

Johnson said that after the surgery, the congressman \u201chas a new lease on life\u201d and \u201cmore energy than a man half his age\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dunn, who had represented a district in the Florida panhandle since 2017, announced earlier this year he would not seek re-election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time has come to pass the torch to new conservative leaders, return home to Panama City, and spend more precious time with my family and our beloved grandchildren,\u201d he wrote in his retirement statement.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Dunn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump on Monday publicly revealed details about a Republican congressman\u2019s \u201cterminal\u201d diagnosis that could have left him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-194132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}