Donald Trump suffered a stroke several months ago and has kept it from the public, a prominent medical expert has suggested.
Professor Bruce Davidson of Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine made the bombshell claim about the 79-year-old president’s health while laying out “lines of evidence supportive” that have also been reported on by the Daily Beast over the past year.
“I think his stroke was on the left side of the brain, which controls the right side of the body,” Davidson told biographer Sidney Blumenthal and Princeton historian Sean Wilentz on their podcast, The Court of History.
“I think the stroke was six months ago or more, earlier in 2025,” he continued. “There are videos of him shuffling his feet, which is not what we’d seen previously when he was striding on the golf course. We’ve seen him holding his right hand cradled in his left. Earlier in 2025, he was garbling words, which he hadn’t done before and which he’s improved upon more recently.”
Davidson also pointed to what he described as “marked episodes of excessive daytime sleepiness,” known medically as hypersomnolence, which he said is common among stroke patients. Trump is now routinely appearing to nod off in public appearances such as White House events.
He further suggested that footage showing Trump gingerly descending the steps of Air Force One while gripping the banister with his left hand, despite the president being right-handed, is “consistent with having had a stroke on the left side of the brain.”
Speculation about the mental and physical decline of Trump, who is on track to become the oldest president in U.S. history, has circulated for months.
The president has frequently appeared in public with large, visible bruises on his hands, which he desperately attempts to conceal with blotches of makeup.
Trump has also taken steps to hide from public view his swollen cankles, a symptom of the medical condition chronic venous insufficiency, which the White House admitted the president had in July 2024.
Additional concerns were raised after Trump appeared at an event commemorating the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks with his face drooping to one side. Multiple social media users speculated at the time that the appearance could be a sign of a stroke, though no diagnosis has been confirmed.
In a candid interview with The Wall Street Journal published this month, Trump acknowledged several health issues and treatments, including briefly wearing compression socks to help manage swelling in his legs.
He also made the startling admission that he takes more aspirin than his doctors recommend for “cardiac prevention.” Trump and the White House have repeatedly attributed the unsightly bruising on the 79-year-old’s hands to his daily aspirin use, combined with his frequently shaking people’s hands.
Elsewhere during his podcast appearance, Davidson suggested that Trump’s erratic and aggressive governing style during his second term could also be consistent with post-stroke behavioral changes.
“It’s a very serious, concerning, life-threatening, upsetting, scary event, and people react in different ways,” Davidson said. “Some people respond with humility and gratitude. Others become euphoric—‘I was at the cliff of death, and now I’m back.’ And some think, ‘That was my chance to die, and I didn’t—so now I’m going to do everything I wanted to do, because the next one may be fatal.’”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
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