Donald Trump is undergoing his annual physical on Friday, potentially giving the public its first details in years about the health of a man who in January became the oldest in US history to be sworn in as president. “I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!” Trump, 78, posted on his social media site. Despite long questioning predecessor Joe Biden’s physical and mental capacity, Trump himself has routinely kept basic facts about his own health shrouded in secrecy - shying away from traditional presidential transparency on medical issues.
If history is any indication, his latest physical is likely to produce a flattering report that’s scarce on details. It will be conducted at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and will be the first public information on Trump’s health since an assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, last July.
Rather than release medical records at that time, Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson - a staunch supporter who served as his White House physician and once joked in the White House briefing room that Trump could live to be 200 if he had a healthier diet — wrote a memo describing a gunshot wound to Trump’s right ear. In a subsequent interview with CBS last August, Trump said he’d “very gladly” release his medical records but never did.
Trump is three years younger than Biden. But on Inauguration Day of his second term in January, Trump was five months older than Biden was during his 2021 inauguration - making Trump the nation’s oldest president to be sworn into office.
Before Jackson’s memo, Americans hadn’t seen key details about Trump’s health since November 2023, when Dr. Bruce A. Aronwald released a letter to coincide with Biden’s 81st birthday, saying Trump was in “excellent” physical and mental health.
The letter, posted on Trump’s social media platform, contained no details - including Trump’s weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or the results of any test. Instead, Aronwlad wrote that he’d examined Trump that fall and found his “physical exams were well within the normal range and his cognitive exams were exceptional,” while also noting that Trump had “reduced his weight.”
