President Donald Trump will undergo his first physical examination of his second administration on Friday, and questions about cognitive testing hang in the balance.
“I am pleased to report that my long scheduled Annual Physical Examination will be done at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Friday of this week,” the president wrote on Truth Social this week. “I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!”
At 78 years old, Trump was the oldest person ever sworn into office in January but, unlike his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, has not faced major questioning about his mental acuity. The White House has not said whether Trump’s exam would include a cognitive test, which Biden did not undergo as part of his White House physical.
The lack of testing for Biden fueled concerns he was mentally unfit for office, with Trump challenging him to a cognitive test on the 2024 campaign trail. Then-Trump primary foe Nikki Haley called for mental competency tests for politicians over the age of 75, which applied to both men.
During his first term, Trump insisted on taking a cognitive assessment exam and scored a 30/30 on the test. His physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson, who has since become a Texas congressman, said in 2018 that Trump shows no signs of mental deterioration. Trump was measured at 6 feet, 3 inches, and weighed 239 pounds. While Jackson advised him to eat better and exercise more, he credited his “good genes” for his health.
Trump boasted about how easy it was to pass a cognitive test in an interview with Fox News in July 2020.
“It was 30 or 35 questions. The first questions are very easy. The last questions are much more difficult. Like a memory question,” Trump told Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel.
Trump’s path back to the White House accelerated after the June 2024 presidential debate, during which Biden’s fumbling and rambling performance raised widespread concern he was unfit for a second term in office. He exited the race shortly thereafter, paving the way for former Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him in the campaign’s final months.
Recent books detailed how Biden’s closest advisers shielded his declining mental fitness from the public.
“Clearly, they were uncomfortable even then with the prospect of the president having an interview in real-time with a reporter,” said Chris Whipple, the author of Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History in a recent interview.
Another book from CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, detailed the “cover-up” of Biden’s mental decline.
Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre even claimed that Biden “doesn’t need a cognitive test” during a press briefing in February 2024.
“That is not my assessment; that is the assessment of the president’s doctor,” Jean-Pierre continued.
The Harris campaign and her surrogates routinely poked Trump over allegations that he was not on the campaign stump due to his age.
“He is, as we have seen, only focused on himself. And now, he is ducking debates and canceling interviews,” Harris said at a campaign stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “And check this out — his own campaign team recently said it is because of exhaustion.”
“We do not need to see what an older, loonier Donald Trump looks like with no guardrails,” former President Barack Obama told Michigan Democrats during a campaign stop.
The Trump campaign hit back against Harris, claiming that Trump was “running laps around Kamala Harris on the campaign trail, engaging in far more interviews, hosting more events, and rallies.”
In August, Trump claimed he would release his medical records during an interview with CBS News. “Oh sure, I would do that very gladly, sure,” he said then.
Two months later, after Harris released her medical records, the Trump campaign claimed that his medical records had already been released following his survival of an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
“President Trump has voluntarily released updates from his personal physician, as well as detailed reports from Dr. Ronny Jackson, who treated him after the first assassination attempt,” said former Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung. “All have concluded he is in perfect and excellent health to be Commander in Chief.”
TRUMP-BACKED BUDGET BILL SURVIVES FIRST TEST IN HOUSE BUT FINAL PASSAGE UNCLEAR
Jackson’s July 20 report claimed Trump was “doing well” and recovering following the Butler incident. Roughly a week later, Jackson wrote in a second report pushing back against criticisms that Trump did not suffer from a gunshot wound.
More specific details of Trump’s physical, including his weight and height, will likely come on Friday after the exam has concluded.
