Donald Trump undergoes his first annual medical Friday since returning to power, putting the focus on a 78-year-old who is the oldest US president ever elected and has regularly faced accusations of a lack of transparency about his health.
Republican Trump has repeatedly boasted about his own vigor since starting his second term in the White House, while mocking his 82-year-old Democratic predecessor Joe Biden as decrepit and mentally unfit for office.
But now it will be Trump under scrutiny, with the billionaire due to arrive at the Walter Reed military hospital in the Washington suburbs at 11:00 am (1500 GMT) and expected to spend some five hours there.
“I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!” Trump said on Truth Social earlier this week.
It was not immediately clear when the results of the exam being led presidential physician Sean Barbabella would be released, or how detailed they would be.
Trump has repeatedly been accused of a lack of openness about his health despite huge interest in the wellbeing of America’s commander-in-chief.
Trump is a prolific golfer who abstains from alcohol and cigarettes.
But he is also known to indulge in fast food and famously enjoys his steaks well-done, although he appears noticeably thinner than during his first term.
– ‘Healthiest individual’ –
Trump’s personal and White House doctors have at times made outlandish claims about his health.
In 2015, as Trump was running for the presidency for the first time, his doctor Harold Bornstein released a letter saying that the tycoon “unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
Bornstein later told CNN that Trump himself “dictated that whole letter. I didn’t write that letter.”
His White House doctor in his first term, Ronny Jackson, said in 2018 that with a healthier diet Trump could “live to be 200 years old.”
Jackson’s report then suggested Trump should aim to lose 10 to 15 pounds but was generally in “excellent health,” adding that there were no signs of “any cognitive issues.”
A year later, an exam found the 6-foot-3 (1.9 meter) Trump weighed 243 pounds (110 kilograms), up seven pounds since shortly before taking office, making him technically obese. It said he was taking medication to treat high cholesterol.
In 2020, he told Fox News that he aced a test for cognitive impairment by repeating the phrase “person, woman, man, camera, TV.”
Age became a major issue in the 2024 election when Trump and Biden faced off as the oldest two major party candidates in history.
Biden was forced to drop out after a stumbling performance in a TV debate against Trump in June that put concerns over his cognitive health to the top of the agenda.
Since returning to office Trump has repeatedly compared his own vigor to Biden’s, while the White House has accused the previous administration of covering up what it says was the Democrat’s decline.
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