Nearly half of Americans believe President Donald Trump is not being transparent about his health, according to a new poll.
The latest YouGov/Economist poll, conducted between May 23 and 26 among 1,660 adults, found that 45 percent of respondents felt Trump had been “not at all” or “not very” transparent about his health, while 42 percent said the opposite. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
Why It Matters
The findings highlight a critical challenge for the president as he seeks to maintain public trust and transparency amid questions about his health.
At 78 years and seven months, Trump was the oldest person to be sworn in as president of the United States, and his inauguration followed an election where concerns about the health and age of presidential candidates were at the forefront.
There have been ongoing concerns about Trump’s physical and mental health, as dementia has been reported to run in his family. However, the White House physician said in April that the president was in “excellent cognitive and physical health.”
What To Know
The YouGov/Economist poll also found that 31 percent of respondents believed Trump’s health and age severely affected his ability to do his job. Meanwhile, 30 percent said his health and age had little effect on his ability to do his job, and 29 percent said they had no effect at all.
A majority of respondents—62 percent—also said presidents should publicly release all medical information that might affect their ability to serve in the role, while 28 percent said a president should have the same right as every other citizen to keep their medical records private.
Former President Joe Biden, 82, who recently announced that he had been diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer, has sparked similar transparency concerns.
According to the survey, 61 percent of respondents felt that Biden had not been transparent about his health, compared to 31 percent who believe he had.
Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race following a debate performance that heightened concerns about his health and cognitive ability. Months prior, in February 2024, his doctor had declared him “fit to serve” after he underwent a physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Following the debate, Biden and his campaign dismissed concerns about his mental acuity, and there is a growing perception that the administration was not fully transparent about his health: 57 percent of those surveyed believed Democrats intentionally concealed information about his medical condition while he was in office.
This skepticism was also seen in findings from the most recent Quantus Insights poll, where 36 percent of Democrats said they believed Biden’s health problems were downplayed to mislead the public—part of the 65 percent overall who held that view. Additionally, 74 percent of all respondents and 58 percent of Democrats believed Biden did not possess the mental and cognitive fitness necessary to effectively serve as president.
Worries about Biden’s age and job capability were also prevalent among respondents in the YouGov/Economist poll, with 76 percent believing his age would severely affect his ability to be president again. Additionally, 58 percent felt his health condition would have a severe impact on his job performance, while 28 percent thought it would have only a little effect and 6 percent believed it would have no effect at all.
Some doctors have questioned whether Biden knew he had cancer before leaving office.
Dr. Howard Forman, a professor of radiology and biomedical imaging at the Yale School of Medicine, expressed disbelief that Biden’s prostate cancer—diagnosed with a Gleason grade 9—wasn’t detected earlier, saying such a high grade would have caused elevated PSA levels well before the diagnosis.
Forman suggested that it was odd for someone of Biden’s prominence and access to health care to have metastasis as the first sign of cancer, especially if he had been undergoing routine health checks.
However, Dr. Mark Litwin, the chair of the Department of Urology at UCLA, said aggressive prostate cancers can grow rapidly and sometimes do not produce PSA, meaning they may go undetected until they have already spread.
During an Oval Office press briefing last week, Trump criticized Biden’s former medical team, suggesting they withheld critical health information from the public, and labeled the situation as “dangerous for our country.”
“I think somebody is going to have to speak to his doctor if it’s the same, or even if it’s two separate doctors,” Trump said. “Why wasn’t the cognitive ability, why wasn’t that discussed? And I think the doctor said he’s just fine. And it’s turned out that’s not so. It’s very dangerous.”
What Happens Next
The debate over the transparency of the Trump White House regarding the president’s health is likely to continue.
Biden’s office, meanwhile, has said that while the former president has “a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, which allows for effective management.”
It added that Biden and his family were “reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”
The post Nearly Half of Americans Say Trump Not Being Transparent About Health appeared first on Newsweek.
