Trump to Get Annual Physical at Walter Reed Tuesday

Trump’s annual – President Donald Trump is scheduled to receive annual preventative medical and dental checkups on Tuesday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, renewing a fight over how much the public should learn about his health. The White House says he remains

For years, presidents have treated their medical checkups like something private—until they chose to make them public. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s annual exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center will land back in that spotlight.

The 79-year-old president is scheduled to visit Walter Reed for what the White House described as annual preventative medical and dental checkups. It will be Trump’s fourth publicly disclosed medical exam since he returned to office for a second term. and it comes as he seeks to project strength ahead of midterm elections that will test his sway with voters.

Trump’s health has become a recurring national preoccupation. especially as he tries to dismiss concerns about his age and stamina. He will turn 80 next month, making him the oldest person elected U.S. president. His predecessor. former President Joe Biden. was 82 when he left office and withdrew from the 2024 presidential race because of widespread concerns he was too old for the job.

Those anxieties are not fading. A Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted in April found that less than half of U.S. adults think Trump has the mental sharpness or physical health to serve effectively as president.

When it comes to what an “annual preventative” physical is supposed to include. doctors say the public typically expects far more than what gets released. Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman. who served as a White House physician for more than a decade under former presidents Barack Obama. George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. said that for a president of Trump’s age. a complete physical would be expected to include advanced heart testing. screening for common cancers and a cognitive assessment. along with basics like height. weight and blood pressure.

The White House has not disclosed what the visit will entail. But it has already staked out a clear message about the outcome. White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement. “President Trump is the sharpest and most accessible President in American history who is working nonstop to solve problems and deliver on his promises. and he remains in excellent health.”.

That confidence may sound straightforward, but the process around presidential medical disclosures is where the argument has always sharpened. There is no law requiring presidents to disclose their medical records, and the level of transparency has varied across administrations. Even so. decades of precedent mean the public has come to expect selected results from presidential physicals—and to wonder what is being left out.

Trump’s medical reporting in his second term has not satisfied critics. His first medical report in that term was released last April. In July. he was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency. a common condition in older adults that causes blood to pool in their veins. Photographs have shown the president with swollen feet. ankles. and calves. which the White House described as a symptom of chronic venous insufficiency leading to “mild swelling” in his lower legs.

After his last publicly disclosed exam—described as a routine follow-up last October—Trump’s physician issued a one-page summary saying the president was in “exceptional health” without divulging many specific results. Critics have also questioned past disclosures for offering scant detail and for reporting statistics that some medical experts have viewed with skepticism.

At public appearances, Trump is often seen wearing makeup to conceal bruising on his hands, which the White House attributes to handshaking and regular aspirin use. He has sometimes appeared drowsy during meetings and closed his eyes for long stretches, though he denies having fallen asleep.

On the cognitive front. Trump has repeatedly said he has “aced” cognitive tests while frequently deriding Biden. who faced questions about his mental acuity. Some of Trump’s previous physicals included the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, used to screen for dementia and cognitive impairment. Trump’s physicians reported a score of 30 out of 30 for him at 2018 and 2025 checkups.

Yet critics have pointed to Trump’s meandering speeches and sometimes bellicose rhetoric as signs they argue are consistent with cognitive decline.

Last month, more than 30 neurologists, psychiatrists and other medical experts issued a statement saying Trump was mentally unfit to serve. They acknowledged they’ve never examined him and warned of an “increasingly dangerous decline” in his behavior based on what they called “objectively observable signs of serious medical concern.” In response. Ingle said. “Any so-called medical professionals engaging in armchair diagnosis or false speculation for political purposes are clearly breaking the Hippocratic Oath they’ve sworn to.”.

The clash is as much about boundaries as it is about symptoms. Sara Rosenthal. a bioethicist at the University of Kentucky who studies presidential health. said presidents. like any other patient. get to choose what’s disclosed about their health. But she also argued that transparency questions are becoming sharper as the country elects older presidents like Trump and Biden.

“I think we can expect very little disclosure about the true health status of any president unless they’re in perfect health,” Rosenthal said. She has suggested an independent medical organization to review and report on the health of the president and those in the line of succession.

Some medical experts say the public should see more. S. Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois-Chicago. who has studied the health of past presidents. said the frequency of Trump’s medical checkups is not uncommon for someone his age and that it’s part of a strategy to catch problems while they’re still treatable.

But Olshansky said the public deserves to see more than White House medical summaries that “may be subject to editorial discretion.” He argued that full, unredacted medical records should be made public and said, “Nothing should be hidden.”

In the hours leading up to Tuesday. the White House has remained tight-lipped about specifics. including whether the visit will include procedures that may require anesthesia. If anesthesia were involved. Vice President JD Vance would be expected to assume temporary control of the office under the 25th Amendment.

That last happened in 2021, when Vice President Kamala Harris was briefly sworn in while Biden had a colonoscopy. Former President George W. Bush twice turned over power to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Trump has also spent recent weeks projecting that he feels as good as he did five decades ago. even as he jokes about his fondness for fast food and his minimal exercise regimen. At the same time. he appears sensitive to perceptions about his age—taking extra caution descending the steps from Air Force One to avoid headlines about a stumble.

On Tuesday. the staging of a routine preventative visit at Walter Reed will do what it often does to presidents at this stage of life: pull private medical detail into the public arena. and force Americans to decide how much control they want the White House to have over what they’re allowed to know.

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