![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/86e783888886e6ad518796af1dd76904f1-trump-health-lede.rvertical.w570.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n June 8, 2025: Stumbling as he boards Air Force One.
\n Photo: Haiyun Jiang\/The New York Times\/Redux\n <\/p>\n
This article was featured in New York\u2019s One Great Story<\/a> newsletter.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n When I arrived at the Oval Office in December to talk to Donald Trump<\/a> about his health, the president was standing next to a couple of men clutching pieces of paper labeled TALKING POINTS.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are two doctors,\u201d Trump told me before I could ask a question. \u201cAnd by the way, I don\u2019t know them, they\u2019re not my best friends. They\u2019re respected doctors that practice out of Walter Reed. And they happen to be taking care of me for anything \u2014 but I don\u2019t need any taking care of because I\u2019m in perfect health. I do purposely every year or less a physical, because I think the American people should know that the president is healthy so you don\u2019t get a guy like the last one, who was the worst thing that ever happened to older people. Because I know people in their 90s that are 100 percent. Gary Player is 90 years old. He shot 70 with me the other day.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump gestured at everyone present \u2014 me, the doctors, and press secretary Karoline Leavitt<\/a> \u2014 to follow him into the room.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s sit for a couple of minutes,\u201d he said. \u201cI hate to waste a lot of time on this, but if you\u2019re going to write a bad story about my health, I\u2019m going to sue the ass off of New York Magazine. There will be a time when you can write that story, maybe in two years, three years, five years \u2014 five years, no one is going to care, I guess. Go ahead and sit down.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the president\u2019s protests, the White House realizes that the time to talk about his health is now. Speculation about his fitness for office is rampant; armchair physicians have given him months and sometimes even days to live. \u201cThat right there looks like a leg bag for a urinary catheter,\u201d a physical therapist claimed in an Instagram with 19 million views, pointing to a bulge in Trump\u2019s pants. In recent months, Trump has been caught seeming to fall asleep during public events, making him the butt of recurring jokes on The Onion (\u201cTrump Appears to Doze During Stroke\u201d). His right hand is constantly bruised<\/a> and often bandaged. In July, his ankles swelled up like the Michelin Man, a symptom, his doctors said, of \u201cchronic venous insufficiency\u201d \u2014 a common circulatory condition. In August, when Trump took a break from public appearances for a few days, \u201cTrump Is Dead\u201d began trending on social media. \u201cI got calls from friends that said, \u2018Thank God you picked up the phone,\u2019\u201d Trump told me. \u201c\u2018Because there\u2019s a report that you died.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n In September, Trump made headlines at a 9\/11 memorial event because the right side of his face appeared \u201cdroopy\u201d; in October, he went to Walter Reed and received what he said was an MRI<\/a>, and when asked why, he suspiciously couldn\u2019t recall which part of his body had been imaged; on New Year\u2019s Eve, he was spotted apparently limping into a black-tie party at Mar-a-Lago; in January, his mental fitness was called into question when he demanded control of Greenland<\/a> because he hadn\u2019t been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize<\/a>, prompting calls for Congress to invoke the 25th Amendment; and later that month, he showed up in Davos<\/a> with a new bruise on his left hand.<\/p>\n That Trump couldn\u2019t stop talking about his \u201cperfect health\u201d at rallies and on Truth Social only convinced people something was wrong. That he started making jokes about how he wasn\u2019t on track to get into Heaven only added more fodder for conspiracy theorists. And the fact that his predecessor in the Oval Office began his disastrous decline at around the same age has only made the questions surrounding Trump\u2019s health more palpably urgent.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel the same as I did 40 years ago,\u201d he said, settling in behind the Resolute desk. Warm afternoon light from the window illuminated his famous hair, once dyed golden and now its natural white \u2014 his \u201conly concession to age,\u201d one of his senior staffers told me. In person, Trump looks trimmer than he does on television, though he denies he\u2019s ever been on a GLP-1 or, as he calls it, \u201cthe fat drug.\u201d (His last physical, this past April, listed him as weighing 224 pounds, but he told me he\u2019s currently \u201cabout 235.\u201d) He stands a little hunched and his eyes are puffy, but he looks pretty good for a 79-year-old. His hearing, according to a senior staff member, isn\u2019t what it used to be (the staffer doesn\u2019t think Trump has noticed this about himself, despite regularly leaning in and requesting people speak up). His right hand, warm and soft during our handshake, looked like rhino hide on the back: dry and gray, the notorious bruise spread out like an inkblot test.<\/p>\n The president\u2019s discolored hand has become something of a smoking gun for those on Donald Trump Deathwatch, evidence, perhaps, that he\u2019s getting surreptitious IVs to treat an undisclosed illness. \u201cThey\u2019re looking very Queen Elizabeth\u2013esque,\u201d The Bulwark\u2019s Tim Miller has said, referring to photos of her Royal Highness\u2019s bruised hands shortly before she died. It doesn\u2019t help that Trump covers the bruise<\/a> with a large dollop of makeup and can seem testy when people bring up the subject. Late last year, a Republican operative showed Trump his own hand injury to try to relate. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t amused,\u201d the operative told me. When Trump met with the much younger Zohran Mamdani<\/a> in the Oval Office<\/a> in November, I watched up close as Trump spent the public portion of the meeting shielding the bruise with his left hand. On occasion he would sneak a peek at the mark as if checking the time.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is only from shaking hands,\u201d he said now, rubbing his left thumb over the back of his right hand, a claim he would repeat to other journalists. Trump turned to the doctors, Captain Sean Barbabella, his lead physician, and Colonel James Jones, a physician\u2019s assistant with a Ph.D. in health science.<\/p>\n \u201cCan you just verify that?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAbsolutely,\u201d said Barbabella, a short man with close-cropped hair and a nervous smile. \u201cI\u2019ve seen the president shaking hands for over an hour.\u201d Trump held up his non-shaking hand. \u201cLook, this one\u2019s perfect,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople say, \u2018What beautiful skin you have.\u2019\u201d (The White House said the bruise that appeared on his left hand in Davos was caused by him hitting it against a table corner. Trump also blamed women\u2019s fingernails and rings for the cuts on his right hand, including one particularly nasty \u201cslice\u201d that came from a botched high five with Attorney General Pam Bondi.)<\/p>\n It would be easy, Trump said, to stop the bruising and end the rumors of his imminent demise. All he would have to do is stop taking so much aspirin, which he claims is necessary to prevent his blood from becoming too thick<\/a>. \u201cI want thin blood,\u201d he said. \u201cReal thin blood.\u201d In 2016, Trump shocked executives from a major pharmaceutical company when he told them he took 325 milligrams of the company\u2019s aspirin each day. \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t be taking that much,\u201d one of the executives said, according to a person familiar with his comments. \u201cDo your doctors know?\u201d Trump said they did and didn\u2019t approve. \u201cBut it works for me,\u201d he said. He told me, \u201cI\u2019ve been doing it for 30 years, and I don\u2019t want to change. You know what? You\u2019re in the Oval Office now, right? I don\u2019t want to change a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than change, Trump tends to force the world to adapt to him. If there was a conspiracy of silence protecting Joe Biden<\/a> when questions arose about his mental and physical decline, there\u2019s a cacophony around Trump. Numerous members of his inner circle have clamored to tell me tales of the president\u2019s godlike virility. \u201cHe can work harder and he has a better memory and he has more stamina and has more energy than a normal mortal,\u201d deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller<\/a> told me. \u201cThe headline of your story should be \u2018The Superhuman President.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n These strenuous assertions came alongside signs that made Trump seem more mortal than ever, from his dismal approval rating to the growing likelihood that Republicans will lose control of at least one chamber of Congress in this fall\u2019s midterms. Already, pundits have started calling him a lame duck, a term typically saved for the third year of a presidency, which might partly explain the vigorous flurry of activity he has undertaken in Nigeria, Venezuela<\/a>, Minneapolis<\/a>, Greenland<\/a>, and beyond. He has gamely entertained discussions about whether Marco Rubio<\/a> or J.\u2009D. Vance<\/a> will succeed him, which in one sense is an acknowledgment of his mortality. In another sense, the succession represents a way for him to live forever \u2014 a conceit, I soon learned, that was perpetuated by the bubble of loyalists and supplicants and advisers that constantly surrounds him and that seemed indicative of the late-empire stage of Trump\u2019s decade-plus-long dominance of American life.<\/p>\n \u201cReal fast,\u201d Trump said, turning to the doctors in the room. \u201cIs my health perfect?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour health is excellent, sir,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n \n From left: Aides say he closes his eyes during meetings as a \u201clistening mechanism.\u201d Photo: Andrew Harnik\/Getty ImagesHis angry demands for control of Greenland, which he\u2019s sometimes referred to as Iceland, have led to speculation about his mental health. Photo: Markus Schreiber\/AP\n <\/p>\n \n From top: Aides say he closes his eyes during meetings as a \u201clistening mechanism.\u201d Photo: Andrew Harnik\/Getty ImagesHis angry demands for control of G… more For all his raging against those who question his invincibility, Trump has acknowledged that he will in fact cease to exist one day. At Mar-a-Lago last year, with televisions tuned to former president Jimmy Carter<\/a>\u2019s body lying in state at the U.S. Capitol, Trump surprised people in the room when he said, according to a person familiar with his comments, \u201cYou know, within ten years that will be me.\u201d (Leavitt said she doesn\u2019t recall Trump making such a comment.)<\/p>\n In a \u201cnot morbid way,\u201d he has, according to a senior White House official, been \u201cthinking more about what he will be remembered for.\u201d Even the \u201ccrazy ballroom\u201d that\u2019s being built on the site of the demolished East Wing, this official said, \u201cis about leaving a legacy here.\u201d His desire to leave something tangible behind might also explain the \u201cArc de Trump\u201d he wants to erect in Washington or the decision to slap his name on the Kennedy Center. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t think of legacy in terms of policies enacted,\u201d a Republican operative with ties to the administration told me. \u201cIt\u2019s buildings he can leave behind and prizes he can win\u201d \u2014 the most coveted of which, the Nobel Peace Prize, he managed to finagle from Venezuelan opposition leader Mar\u00eda Corina Machado<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s having more fun building this ballroom than I can possibly tell you,\u201d Eric Trump<\/a> told me in January on the day the building\u2019s architect released plans for its $400 million construction<\/a>. Eric said his father isn\u2019t really one to talk much about the time he has left in this world. \u201cHe\u2019s superstitious,\u201d he said. \u201cHe likes occupying his mind with what\u2019s in the present and not as much with what\u2019s in the future. He will say, \u2018You have the most beautiful assets in the world, and you will be able to enjoy them for a long time to come.\u2019 Is it in some way on everybody\u2019s mind? Of course. But he believes, and so do I, he has a lot of years left.\u201d<\/p>\n The specter of death sometimes \u201cmanifests in the 2028 conversation,\u201d said the senior White House official. They said they vividly remember the period after Trump lost the 2020 election, back in the \u201c\u2018Nobody loves Trump\u2019 phase.\u201d Trump would show up to his Mar-a-Lago office every day in his suit and cuff links, \u201cworking well into the evening, even though there wasn\u2019t really much to do.\u201d But then during the 2022 midterms, people started seeking out his endorsement \u2014 and those endorsements made a huge difference. \u201cHe talks about his average in Republican primaries,\u201d they said, referring to what percentage of his endorsements go on to win. He was \u201cvery cognizant of that imprint.\u201d<\/p>\n He also has started sharing his feelings about his eventual successor. \u201cThat\u2019s him thinking about when he won\u2019t be here in a different way,\u201d the official said. Trump has praised both Rubio and Vance in public, saying he \u201ccouldn\u2019t be happier with either\u201d of them. According to a person familiar with his thinking, he hasn\u2019t decided between the two: \u201cHe tells J.D., \u2018You\u2019re my guy.\u2019 He tells Marco, \u2018You\u2019re my guy.\u2019\u201d Both have recently worked to impress the boss, Rubio<\/a> by spearheading the operation to take out Venezuela\u2019s Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> and Vance by leading the campaign to suggest Renee Good<\/a>, an activist killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, was responsible for her own death.<\/p>\n As Trump approaches 80, he has been \u201csharing anecdotes about his father,\u201d according to another senior White House official, and how it wasn\u2019t until his old man retired that he truly started to act like the old man he actually was. In this way, Trump appears to believe that having the job of president of the United States is giving him life. \u201cHe had an expression that I always remember,\u201d Trump told me in the Oval Office. \u201c \u2018To retire is to expire.\u2019 \u201d (As Eric Trump told me, \u201cYou\u2019ve seen a lot of people who smoke cigarettes until they are 95 years old and the day they give up smoking, all of a sudden it\u2019s the end. I don\u2019t think my father could give up working.\u201d)<\/p>\n Fred Trump died in 1999 at age 93. He had, Trump said, a \u201cheart that couldn\u2019t be stopped\u201d with almost no health conditions to speak of throughout his long life. \u201cHe had one problem,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAt a certain age, about 86, 87, he started getting, what do they call it?\u201d He pointed to his forehead and looked to his press secretary for the word that escaped him.<\/p>\n \u201cAlzheimer\u2019s,\u201d Leavitt said.<\/p>\n \u201cLike an Alzheimer\u2019s thing,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWell, I don\u2019t have it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIs it something you think about at all?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I don\u2019t think about it at all. You know why?\u201d he said. \u201cBecause whatever it is, my attitude is whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n Mary Trump, the president\u2019s niece and vocal critic, said he shouldn\u2019t be so blas\u00e9. When I talked to her on the phone in January, she described what it was like to watch her grandfather transform into a shell of his former self. As is often the case, it started slowly, then happened all at once. \u201cOne of the first times I noticed it,\u201d she told me, \u201cwas at some event where he was being honored. And I looked at him and saw this deer-in-the-headlights look, like he had no idea where he was.\u201d Now, when she watches her uncle on the public stage, Mary says she often sees flashes of her grandfather. \u201cSometimes it does not seem like he\u2019s oriented to time and place,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd on occasion, I do see that deer-in-the-headlights look.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump, of course, disagrees with these sorts of assessments of cognitive decline, which proliferate on social media after every one of his rambling speeches. The opposite is true, he contends, often citing the fact that he \u201caced\u201d three recent cognitive tests. \u201cI\u2019ve taken a lot of them,\u201d he said at a bill signing in mid-January. \u201cI\u2019ve aced all of them because I drink milk.\u201d (Why Trump feels the need to take so many cognitive tests is a question he didn\u2019t want to linger on.) As far as he was concerned, his father\u2019s mental state near the end was just a footnote in a long, healthy life. \u201cI know this,\u201d he said. \u201cGenetically, I\u2019m in great shape. My mother and her family lived very long, well into their 90s. No heart disease in my family. No this, no that. I have this friend whose mother died at 49 of a heart attack. His father died at 51 of a heart attack. He\u2019s now 60. I said, \u2018You\u2019re fucked.\u2019 He watches everything he eats. But you can\u2019t beat genetics.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s diet is famously terrible. \u201cHe eats a ton of candy, and he eats meat,\u201d one senior White House official told me. \u201cNo vegetables.\u201d (\u201cI don\u2019t know how he\u2019s alive,\u201d Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<\/a> has said of Trump\u2019s \u201cunhinged\u201d eating habits.) He doesn\u2019t believe in exercise. Recently, after he\u2019d been dealing with swelling in his lower legs and ankles owing to his circulatory condition, doctors recommended he walk more. He asked his staff if there was anything else he could do instead. And he barely sleeps. There are members of his team who worry his lifestyle may not be sustainable in the long term. \u201cHe will collapse,\u201d a senior staffer said, referring to his need for weekend naps.<\/p>\n Trump, however, brushes off any suggestion that he should get more rest. \u201cI think five hours is plenty,\u201d he said. \u201cI find that when I\u2019m really enjoying myself, I sleep less.\u201d<\/p>\n \n The bruise, bare and covered up. Photo: Doug Mills\/The New York Times\/Redux; Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images.\n <\/p>\n \n The bruise, bare and covered up. Photo: Doug Mills\/The New York Times\/Redux; Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images.\n <\/p>\n On December 2, Trump called a Cabinet meeting at the White House. The livestreamed event was over two hours long and featured the kind of outlandish obeisance we have grown accustomed to in his second administration. \u201cSir, you made it through hurricane season without a hurricane,\u201d Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem<\/a> said. \u201cYou even kept the hurricanes away, so we appreciate that.\u201d As his lackeys gushed over his leadership, Trump\u2019s eyelids grew heavier and heavier until finally he appeared to nod off multiple times.<\/p>\n Shortly after the meeting ended, Leavitt beckoned me into her West Wing office for an interview with Will Scharf, the White House staff secretary. He promptly told me I hadn\u2019t seen what I thought I\u2019d just seen. \u201cHe\u2019s always awake, always alert, always knows what\u2019s going on,\u201d said Scharf, whose job requires him to be in almost constant contact with the president. \u201cHis work pace is remarkable. My dad is a few years older than he is; my dad couldn\u2019t do the job that the president does. I don\u2019t think I could do the job the president does.\u201d He added, \u201cIt\u2019s not dozing. Sometimes if he\u2019s thinking about something \u2014 and I made that mistake at first too \u2014 he adopts a pose. He leans back or leans forward a little bit, and he either closes his eyes or looks down \u2014 because he often takes notes in his lap.\u201d<\/p>\n When the president rests his eyes, Leavitt chimed in, he\u2019s actually \u201cactively listening.\u201d His energy levels are so good, she claimed, that even elite members of the military can\u2019t keep up with his work schedule. \u201cThe Marine sentries who stand outside the Oval Office, they had to request more staff and bring up more Marines because the president is in the Oval Office so much,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019ve never had to do that before. They had to request more guys to stand by the door because they are running out of men to fill the shifts.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s working harder now than he did in his entire life,\u201d Leavitt added. \u201cEven in real estate when he was on top of the world in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n All my conversations with members of Trumpworld went like this. \u201cWhen he signed the Epstein transparency bill, he was here until I think 9:50, 9:45,\u201d White House communications director Steven Cheung later told me. \u201cAnd the next day, he was here till 9:30. As much as I hate to admit it, I\u2019m exhausted going into the workday and I\u2019m exhausted at the end of the workday trying to keep up with the president.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI mean it \u2014 on my children \u2014 I\u2019ve never seen my father take a vacation,\u201d Eric Trump said. At different points in our interview, he called his father \u201cmiraculous,\u201d \u201cremarkable,\u201d \u201cincredible,\u201d and possessing \u201ca level of energy unlike anything I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at his EKG, that tells it all,\u201d James Jones, the physician\u2019s assistant, told me. \u201cThe AI analysis shows he\u2019s 14 years younger. So age 65. His stamina demonstrates that. We get a view that nobody else does. Nobody can stay up with him. The rest of the staff is tired; we are too. And he\u2019s not.\u201d A few weeks later, Kennedy told Miller\u2019s wife, Katie Miller, on her podcast that Mehmet Oz, the administrator for Medicare and Medicaid, had told him that Trump \u201chas the highest testosterone level he\u2019s ever seen for an individual who is over 70 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas representative Ronny Jackson, Trump\u2019s former physician, recalled for me the time he put the president on a treadmill during his first term to check his heart health and was \u201cshocked\u201d by what he saw. Trump, wearing gym shorts and a T-shirt (\u201cHe looked like an athlete, for the record,\u201d Jackson said), spent about ten minutes walking at a brisk pace on an incline \u2014 supposedly achieving what fewer than 10 percent of people his age could. \u201cHis heart health is so phenomenal, so much so that the cardiologist from his last exam pretty much told his medical team that, based on his age, he\u2019s pretty much done with cardiac workups,\u201d he told me. \u201cWhatever he dies of someday, it won\u2019t be his heart.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe guy is too healthy,\u201d Marco Rubio said in an interview at the White House. \u201cHe\u2019s too active.\u201d Rubio \u2014 who in addition to running the State Department is the acting national security adviser and acting archivist of the U.S. \u2014 may be one of the busiest men in Washington. On the day I met with him, he was running behind schedule to get to a Capitol Hill briefing with top lawmakers. Still, he took time out of his day to regale me with stories about the president\u2019s \u201cunparalleled\u201d memory and attention to detail. Once, Trump noticed that Rubio\u2019s shoes looked \u201cshitty,\u201d so at a later meeting, the president presented him with a gift: a signed shoebox containing a pair of size 12s. \u201cI have them on, and they\u2019re perfect,\u201d Rubio said, pointing to his shiny black dress shoes. Another time, Trump perceived that the chandeliers in the State Department were missing medallions, the ornamental discs installed on the ceiling. A few days later, Trump called Rubio into his office with dozens of medallion samples. \u201cI don\u2019t even know how many I need,\u201d Rubio recalled telling Trump. \u201cHe said, \u2018I think you need 12,\u2019 and sure enough \u2026\u201d Rubio shook his head in awe. \u201cI try to match it as much as I can. It\u2019s just not natural to me.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s one place in particular where Rubio is unable to keep up with the president: Air Force One. Rubio said he needs to get some rest on overseas flights, but Trump never naps on the plane. So the secretary of State, a man tasked with instilling fear in the hearts of our enemies and confidence among our allies, spends part of most flights hiding from a nearly 80-year-old man. \u201cThere\u2019s an office with two couches, and I usually want to sleep on one of those two couches,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cBut what I do is I cocoon myself in a blanket. I cover my head. I look like a mummy.\u201d Here, Rubio mimed pulling a blanket over his body as if he were auditioning for a Snuggie commercial. \u201cAnd I do that because I know that at some point on the flight, he\u2019s going to emerge from the cabin and start prowling the hallways to see who is awake. I want him to think it\u2019s a staffer who fell asleep. I don\u2019t want him to see his secretary of State sleeping on a couch and think, Oh, this guy is weak.\u201d<\/p>\n When I asked about whether Trump was catching z\u2019s during those heavy-lidded moments on-camera, Rubio scoffed. \u201cIt\u2019s a listening mechanism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In the Oval Office, Trump offered a different defense for closing his eyes during the Cabinet meeting. \u201cIt\u2019s boring as hell,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m going around a room, and I\u2019ve got 28 guys \u2014 the last one was three and a half hours. I have to sit back and listen, and I move my hand so that people will know I\u2019m listening. I\u2019m hearing every word, and I can\u2019t wait to get out.\u201d<\/p>\n Just then, Trump\u2019s phone began ringing and a name flashed on his screen: Ari Emanuel, Hollywood superagent, inspiration for Jeremy Piven\u2019s character in HBO\u2019s Entourage, and brother of possible 2028 Democratic presidential candidate Rahm.<\/p>\n \u201cThe great Ari Emanuel,\u201d Trump said, interrupting our interview to gab. \u201cWhat\u2019s up, Ari? What\u2019s happening? Hey, Ari, I have a wonderful writer here. He\u2019s doing a story for New York Magazine. He says, \u2018So, are you in good health? Is your mind as sharp?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Trump put Emanuel, who had called to talk to the president about tax incentives for Hollywood studios, on speaker. \u201cI have the great Ari Emanuel; let him tell you whether Trump\u2019s mind is sharp. You\u2019ll be my reference. Go ahead, Ari, his name is Ben.\u201d<\/p>\n There was a slight pause as Emanuel seemed to consider what to say.<\/p>\n \u201cHi, Ben,\u201d he said. \u201cI represented him for nine years; it doesn\u2019t seem like he\u2019s changed at all: his wit, his remembering everything, being on it. He seems normal.\u201d There was one caveat, however. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen him in about five years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we speak a lot,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd he would say, \u2018Trump\u2019s losing it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He put the phone down on the table as Emanuel turned the conversation to a memo he\u2019d written for Trump about getting rebates for movies, television shows, and commercials, which Trump said he\u2019d take a look at. \u201cI couldn\u2019t get a better reference than Ari,\u201d Trump said to me with Emanuel still on the line. \u201cThey made a television show about this fucking guy. He\u2019s a legend.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump calls himself the \u201cmost transparent\u201d president in history, but getting an accurate readout of his health is a difficult task. He has a history of obfuscation on the topic. During his first campaign, Trump\u2019s personal doctor, Harold Bornstein, issued a letter saying the soon-to-be president was in \u201castonishingly excellent\u201d health. Later, Bornstein admitted that the letter had been written by Trump. In late 2020, Trump reportedly suffered a bout of COVID that was much more severe than he or his advisers ever let on. Mark Meadows, then his chief of staff, reportedly thought he might die.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the fact there\u2019s enough evidence in the public record to fit anyone\u2019s prior beliefs. He clearly seemed to be sleeping in meetings but can speak on his feet for over an hour during late-night rallies. He goes on grueling international trips, and his voice often sounds shot for days after he returns. He stayed up all night at Mar-a-Lago to track the capture of Maduro (and took a phone call from a New York Times reporter at 4:30 a.m.) but then seemed to be struggling with the stairs of Air Force One. In November, Trump went viral for having a hard time walking in a video with his grandson, but later that day I watched him march in lockstep with Melania through a rainy field to get to his Marine One helicopter without so much as a stumble. Some typically worrisome signs of mental deterioration \u2014 erratic behavior, convoluted speaking, threatening to invade Greenland because he did not receive a Nobel Peace Prize \u2014 may also be Trump being Trump.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/322e8452f9ed4b100347a7ec38e0cda951-trump-sleeping.rhorizontal.w700.jpg\")
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\n From top: Aides say he closes his eyes during meetings as a \u201clistening mechanism.\u201d Photo: Andrew Harnik\/Getty ImagesHis angry demands for control of Greenland, which he\u2019s sometimes referred to as Iceland, have led to speculation about his mental health. Photo: Markus Schreiber\/AP\n <\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ec07cc6fb159fbd823f5ba7c5c65cd8eea-brusied-hand.rvertical.w570.jpg\")
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