President Trump undergoes annual physical
President Donald Trump had his annual physical on Friday, a check-up that may give the public its first details in years about the health of a man who, in January, became the oldest in U.S. history to be sworn in as president
“I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!” Trump, 78, posted on his social media site ahead of the examination, which was conducted at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
How long the exam took wasn't immediately clear as Trump did not speak to reporters before or after it. All told, however, he spent more than five hours at the center before heading to Air Force One and flying to Florida for the weekend.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House while Trump was still being examined that the president was undergoing his “routine and long-scheduled physical." She promised a “readout from the White House physician" that would be released “as soon as we possibly can” and suggested it'd be comprehensive.
“I can confirm the president is in very good shape,” Leavitt said. She noted that the physical didn't require Trump being placed under general anesthesia.
The finished medical report would be the first public information on Trump's health since an assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
In a subsequent interview with CBS last August, Trump said he’d “very gladly” release his medical records, but never did.
Trump is three years younger than Biden. But on Inauguration Day of his second term in January, Trump was five months older than Biden was during his 2021 inauguration — making Trump the nation's oldest president to be sworn into office.
Presidents have privacy rights protecting their medical records just like ordinary citizens, and that means they have leeway over what details are released. Modern annual physicals, though, have often played key roles in offering the public a sense of the commander-in-chief's health — despite historic instances of concealing major medical issues, including President Woodrow Wilson's debilitating stroke in 1919.