WASHINGTON — President Trump arrived Tuesday morning at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for his regularly scheduled physical exam, his third since taking office in January 2025.
Trump is set to turn 80 on June 14, and sharp-eyed observers have often noted bruising on his hands, which the president attributes to heavy use of aspirin, as well as leg swelling from chronic venous insufficiency.
The president and his top aides frequently crow about his physical and mental condition, with Trump often boasting about how he has aced several cognitive exams.
A report summarizing Trump’s evaluation will likely be released shortly after he departs the suburban Maryland facility.
Trump has shown few signs of slowing despite being the second-oldest man ever to hold the presidency.
Only Joe Biden, who left office last year at 82, was older — with fellow Democrats forcing the 46th president to abandon his re-election campaign due to his perceived cognitive decline.
The president frequently stands on stage to deliver high-energy speeches, ripping rivals, cracking jokes and running through all major news topics — including appearing in the Hudson Valley Friday for a raucous 90-minute address before dancing offstage to The Village People’s “YMCA”.
But critics often circulate images of Trump resting his eyes during extended remarks by others and Trump has recognized the need to manage perceptions.
In an in-depth health-focused interview with the Wall Street Journal published in January, the president revealed that he takes 325 milligrams of aspirin every day — much higher than the 81-milligram regimen recommended as a heart-health precaution.
“They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart,” Trump said. “I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?”
He said he ignores medical recommendations to lower the dose to alleviate bruising on his hands because “I’m a little superstitious.”
For his chronic venous insufficiency, which causes blood to pool in the lower limbs, Trump briefly wore compression socks — the standard treatment to prevent blood clots — but told the Journal he later stopped using them.
“I didn’t like them,” Trump said.
Theories swirled last year after Trump in October said he got an MRI scan during his physical. Months later, in January, his physician Dr. Sean Barbabella, clarified that Trump underwent a less-comprehensive CT scan.
“I would have been a lot better off if they didn’t [do the scan], because the fact that I took it said, ‘Oh gee, is something wrong?’” Trump told the Journal. “Well, nothing’s wrong.”
Trump’s aides have for years spun his health in superlative terms.
“Donald Trump is never tired and he is never sick,” his first-term adviser and spokeswoman Hope Hicks famously pronounced.
Dr. Ronny Jackson, currently a Texas Republican congressman, told reporters while White House physician in 2018 that Trump “might live to be 200” with a healthier diet.
