Donald Trump will be the oldest U.S. President in history by the time he leaves office if he serves out his full second term, and while he nicknamed his predecessor Joe Biden as “Sleepy” and amplified questions about his declining fitness for office, Trump now says that reports about his own aging are “seditious, perhaps even treasonous.”
“After all of the work I have done with Medical Exams, Cognitive Exams, and everything else, I actually believe it’s seditious, perhaps even treasonous, for The New York Times, and others, to consistently do FAKE reports in order to libel and demean ‘THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,’” Trump said in a nearly 500-word post on Truth Social late Tuesday.
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Trump’s swipe at the Times comes after it reported last month that the President has apparently cut back on domestic travel and public appearances. The report also mentioned Trump’s apparent dozing off during an event at the White House (and the Times reported earlier this month that he appeared to fall asleep again during a Cabinet meeting).
After the initial Times report was published, Trump attacked one of the reporters, Katie Rogers, calling her “ugly” on Truth Social.
Trump’s Dec. 9 Truth Social post comes after he’s undergone multiple health screenings, including recently an MRI that the White House described as preventive.
“I go out of my way to do long, thorough, and very boring Medical Examinations at the Great Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, seen and supervised by top doctors, all of whom have given me PERFECT Marks — Some have even said they have never seen such Strong Results,” Trump said. “I do these Tests because I owe it to our Country.”
The President also revealed that he “recently” took and “aced” a cognitive exam. The White House did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for details.
“Despite all of this, the time and work involved, The New York Times, and some others, like to pretend that I am ‘slowing up,’ am maybe not as sharp as I once was, or am in poor physical health, knowing that it is not true, and knowing that I work very hard, probably harder than I have ever worked before,” he said. “I will know when I am ‘slowing up,’ but it’s not now!”
Trump then said that the Times and media organizations were previously “forced to apologize on much of what they wrote” about his election results. (Trump is suing the Times and three of its reporters for allegedly defaming him with their reporting during his 2024 campaign; a spokesperson for the newspaper said the case “has no merit.”) “The best thing that could happen to this Country would be if The New York Times would cease publication because they are a horrible, biased, and untruthful ‘source’ of information,” Trump added in his post.
It’s not the first time Trump has suggested the Times was acting treasonously. In 2018, the President used the same term after the paper published an anonymous op-ed by an official who claimed to be part of an anti-Trump “resistance” movement in the Administration. Trump earlier this year directed an investigation into Miles Taylor, who had identified himself as the author.
Trump’s beef with the Times is just one of his many battles with media organizations. He celebrated the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show in September (which ABC has since reversed), filed lawsuits against networks like ABC and CBS, slashed funding for public broadcasting networks, and sued the Wall Street Journal over its coverage of his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. His Administration has also accused political rivals, including Democratic lawmakers and former President Barack Obama, of sedition and treason.
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