Donald Trump, the oldest inaugurated president in US history, completed a physical exam on Tuesday at Walter Reed national military medical center, amid questions around his health.
“Everything checked out PERFECTLY,” the US president declared in a social media post.
The three-and-a-half-hour visit was his fourth publicly disclosed checkup since taking office last year. Trump, who turns 80 next month, frequently casts himself as more energetic and fitter than Joe Biden, his Democratic predecessor who left office last year at age 82 after facing questions about his fitness for the job.
Still, recent photographs showing a blotchy neck rash have added to questions about Trump’s health, after images in July 2025 of swollen ankles and a bruised hand concealed with makeup.
“I think concern for the president’s physical health is probably at an all-time high, and I think advanced physical age is the No 1 concern,” Dr Jeffrey Kuhlman told the Associated Press. Kuhlman served as a White House physician for more than a decade under presidents Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton.
Trump, whose birthday is 14 June, said on Tuesday: “Just finished my 6 month physical at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. Everything checked out PERFECTLY. Thank you to the great Doctors and Staff! Heading back to the White House.”
Trump maintains an active golf schedule, but joked about his relative lack of exercise at a recent Oval Office event where his health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, said the president walks nine miles (14.5km) every time he goes golfing. “When I am not using the cart,” Trump said.
Sean Barbabella, the White House physician, has said Trump is using a common cream as “a preventative skin treatment” to address the neck rash, but he has not given details of the condition being treated.
After the photographs of the president’s legs and hands were published last July, Barbabella said in a letter that the ailments were benign and that there was no evidence of deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease. Trump’s leg swelling was from a “common” vein condition, and his hand was bruised from shaking so many hands, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters.
Trump said last October that he had received a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam that month. The White House initially declined to share further details on the reason for the scan. Leavitt said only that it indicated “exceptional physical health” for Trump. The president later told reporters he got the MRI as part of a second physical exam.
Medical experts noted that MRIs are not typically part of a routine physical and are usually prescribed to get detailed images of the body.
In a memo after the second exam, Barbabella said the president’s “cardiac age” – a validated measure of cardiovascular vitality via ECG – was found to be approximately 14 years younger than his chronological age.
No law requires routine checkups for the president, nor a public announcement of their results. It has been customary since the Nixon administration for public statements about the president’s health to be made after checkups. Trump regularly touts his mental fitness, even as he faced questions after appearing to fall asleep during several meetings, including a session with his cabinet.
“Some people said, ‘He closed his eyes.’ Look, it got pretty boring,” Trump told laughing officials in February. “I didn’t sleep. I just closed them because I wanted to get the hell outta here.”
Reuters contributed reporting
