\n When President Donald Trump\u2019s doctors release a summary of the physical exam he is scheduled to undergo Tuesday, the document is almost certain to conclude he remains in excellent health, if his previous assessments offer any indication.\n <\/p>\n
\n But that is likely to do little to quiet questions about Trump\u2019s health. And even the president himself has begun making tacit acknowledgement of his own mortality \u2014 albeit often in the context of security \u2014 as he reflects periodically on his limited time left on Earth and wonders aloud whether he would make it into heaven<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI don\u2019t know how long I\u2019ll be around,\u201d he mused during an event in the East Room earlier this year. \u201cI have a lot of people gunning for me.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Trump\u2019s visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center will be the third time he\u2019s visited<\/a> the facility for a medical exam since becoming the oldest president ever inaugurated last year. The White House said the check-up would include \u201croutine annual dental and medical assessments,\u201d despite him having already visited a dentist in Florida twice this year.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump and his team eagerly describe him as a leader with boundless energy and unmatched acuity, shrugging off his visible signs of age and the moments when he appears to doze off during meetings<\/a>. But even the rosy appraisals offered by his physician after frequent exams have done little to dampen questions about Trump\u2019s health. Presidents are not legally obligated to release anything about their health, so everything they do disclose is by choice. Several presidents before Trump were found afterward to have concealed medical issues in office.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump, whose political brand is built on an image of strength and vigor, is famously loathe to concede any physical fault. He makes near-daily comparisons to a predecessor he calls \u201cSleepy Joe.\u201d His aides are quick to point out when he is working late \u2014 as they did this weekend, when a communications aide announced the president was in the Oval Office at 9:30 p.m.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI don\u2019t happen to be a senior. I\u2019m much younger than you,\u201d Trump insisted at a retirement community in Florida this month. \u201cI\u2019m a much younger man than you.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Yet even though Trump is a louder and more visible presence than Joe Biden was during his presidency, he still travels less often than he did during his first term and has on multiple occasions closed his eyes for long stretches during on-camera events.\n <\/p>\n \n Repeated attempts on Trump\u2019s life by would-be assassins and his advancing age appear to be reminders that everything could change in an instant. Even as he and his aides downplay any physical deterioration, like bruising on his hands <\/a>and swelling in his legs, the president has allowed brief glimpses into his thoughts on earthliness.\n <\/p>\n \n A stray comment as he welcomed King Charles III to the White House last month offered a revealing window. Referencing his own parents\u2019 63-year-long marriage, he turned to his own wife, who he wed 21 years ago.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThat\u2019s a record we won\u2019t be able to match, darling,\u201d said the 79-year-old president. \u201cSorry, just not going to work out that way.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n In public, the president has maintained remarkable sangfroid around repeated threats on his life. When he emerged wearing a tuxedo into the White House briefing room last month after a panic-ridden press dinner<\/a>, his demeanor was remarkably serene.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s a dangerous life,\u201d he shrugged, reflecting on whether he would change any of his habits an hour or so after a gunman tried to enter the ballroom where he was preparing to dine on steak and lobster.\n <\/p>\n \n Yet people who have spoken to Trump say his personal safety is never far from mind, even as he attempts to avoid it becoming a debilitating fixation. Iran, the country he is at war with, has previously plotted to assassinate him. And two people close to him \u2014 the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe<\/a> and the conservative activist Charlie Kirk<\/a> \u2014 have been killed by lone gunmen during outdoor events in recent years. On Saturday, the Secret Service shot and killed a man<\/a> who the agency said fired at officers at a checkpoint near the White House while Trump was inside \u2014 a reminder of the security danger the president faces.\n <\/p>\n \n Questions about Trump\u2019s physical and mental fitness have existed since before he entered office. A letter from his then-personal physician in 2015, during his first run, declared: \u201cIf elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.\u201d The doctor who wrote it, Harold Bornstein, later told CNN<\/a> that Trump had dictated the statement himself.\n <\/p>\n \n Medical episodes peppered Trump\u2019s first term, including a sudden and unexplained visit to Walter Reed that an aide later appeared to reveal was for a colonoscopy<\/a>, and a bout of Covid that White House officials at the time failed to disclose the severity of.\n <\/p>\n \n Since returning to the White House, visible ailments have prompted the White House into divulging new details of the president\u2019s physical condition.\n <\/p>\n \n The White House said swelling in his ankles that was revealed last summer\u200b was a result of chronic venous insufficiency<\/a>, a common issue related to age. Trump attempted wearing compression socks, but found them uncomfortable.\n <\/p>\n \n The bruises on Trump\u2019s hands, which he attempts to conceal with thick makeup, occur because he takes a large dose of aspirin<\/a> \u2014 higher than his doctors recommend \u2014 and shakes many hands, the White House said.\n <\/p>\n \n And, officials insist, the heavy eyelids during meetings are simply long blinks.\n <\/p>\n