President Trump appeared Monday with what appeared to be a red skin rash near his shirt collar, a condition that his physician said was expected to last for “a few weeks.”
Dr. Sean P. Barbabella, Mr. Trump’s physician, said in a statement on Monday that the president was using a medicated cream as a “preventative” treatment of the skin condition, which was seen extending out of his shirt collar behind his right ear. Dr. Barbabella did not say what the skin condition was or what medication Mr. Trump was taking.
“President Trump is using a very common cream on the right side of his neck, which is a preventative skin treatment, prescribed by the White House doctor,” the statement read. “The president is using this treatment for one week, and the redness is expected to last for a few weeks.”
Mr. Trump, the oldest president sworn into his office, has faced public scrutiny over his health, driven by signs of fatigue during his first year back in office and a lack of clarity from his doctors and aides on details of the president’s condition.
Over the past year, for example, Mr. Trump has been seen with frequent visible bruises on his hands. When the bruises appeared on his right hand, White House officials said it was caused by his handshake, and Mr. Trump, 79, began masking the bruises with makeup. When a bruise appeared on his left hand last month, Mr. Trump said it was because he had hit it on a table and was taking aspirin.
Mr. Trump has also been observed with frequent swelling in his legs, which the president’s doctors and aides have explained is a result of chronic venous insufficiency, a condition that occurs when veins have trouble moving blood back to the heart.
For more than a decade, Mr. Trump, his doctors and his aides have frequently issued terse, vague or rosy statements about the president’s fitness and health conditions. Dr. Harold Bornstein, Mr. Trump’s longtime personal physician, declared in late 2015 that Mr. Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” Dr. Ronny L. Jackson, a White House physician for Mr. Trump, asserted in 2018 that with a better diet, Mr. Trump could have lived to be 200 years old.
Mr. Trump’s critics have speculated about his health for as long as he has been in national politics and in turn Mr. Trump has frequently declined to explain when and why he has sought out medical care, whether he was suffering from Covid or undergoing routine procedures.
For example, as Mr. Trump returned to the campaign trail ahead of the 2024 election, his doctor issued a fawning but vague single-page health report that did not include even basic details such as Mr. Trump’s weight, his blood pressure, his cholesterol levels, or any prescription medication. Mr. Trump ultimately refused to release many of his basic health records before the election.
In one particularly dire episode, Mr. Trump became very seriously ill with Covid-19 in October 2020. At the time, his prognosis became so worrisome that officials believed he would need to be put on a ventilator. But the details of how serious his condition was did not become public until after he left office in January 2021. Mr. Trump’s doctors acknowledged that they had given an overly rosy depiction of his illness.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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