What Do We Know About Donald Trump’s Medical History?

Last month, MedPage Today reviewed what’s known about Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ medical history. Here, we do the same for the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump.

Trump’s physical and mental health have been the focus of media attention for years due to his age, as well as certain personality traits. If elected, Trump, at 78, would be the oldest person ever inaugurated.

Assassination Attempt

After a gunman attempted to shoot Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, Ronny Jackson, MD, Trump’s former physician at the White House, who is now a Republican congressman representing Texas, issued the only memo about his injuries, noting that the gunshot wound Trump sustained was “less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head, and struck the top of his right ear … There was initially significant bleeding, followed by marked swelling of the entire upper ear.”

In late August, Trump told CBS News he was not experiencing any post-traumatic stress disorder or other residual health effects following the attempt on his life, and that he “aced” his cognitive tests during a recent medical exam. He added that he would “very gladly” release his medical records to the public.

As of this publication, Trump’s press team has not responded to questions from MedPage Today about the release of his medical records.

In November 2023, Trump posted a letter from Bruce Aronwald, DO, his personal physician at the time, which stated that Trump was in “excellent” health and his cognitive exams were “exceptional.”

COVID Diagnosis

On Oct. 2, 2020, Trump and then-First Lady, Melania Trump, tested positive for COVID-19. Initially, Sean Conley, DO, a White House physician, said they were feeling well and quarantining at the White House.

Later that day, Trump headed to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for testing and treatment. In a statement, Conley shared that Trump had received a single 8-g dose of the investigational REGN-COV2 antibody cocktail, which had yet to receive an emergency use authorization (EUA) by the FDA. Some physicians questioned the use of an investigational drug.

Trump was also given the antiviral remdesivir (Veklury), which was approved for treating hospitalized patients with COVID later that month. According to Conley, Trump was “not requiring any supplemental oxygen,” despite media reports that he was having difficulty breathing.

Trump was likely sicker than he acknowledged publicly, the New York Times reported in February 2021, citing “depressed blood oxygen levels” and “a lung problem associated with pneumonia.” Two individuals familiar with his condition said some officials thought he would be put on a ventilator.

Medical History

In 2016, during an interview with Mehmet Oz, MD, Trump said he had been taking a statin for a “couple of years.”

Reviewing medical reports Trump shared, including a letter dated Sept. 13, 2016 from the late Harold Bornstein, MD, who was Trump’s personal physician, Oz said Trump had “good numbers” for cholesterol and triglycerides, and his prostate-specific antigen level, at 0.15 ng/mL, was “very low.”

“I don’t think you can represent the country properly if you’re not a healthy person,” Trump told Oz.

In a January 2018 press briefing, Jackson stated that Trump “continues to enjoy the significant long-term cardiac and overall benefits that come from a lifetime of abstinence from tobacco and alcohol.” He acknowledged, however, that Trump “would benefit from a diet that is lower in fat and carbohydrates and from a routine exercise regimen.”

Jackson also said that Trump took rosuvastatin (Crestor) to lower his cholesterol; aspirin for cardiac health; finasteride (Propecia) for prevention of male-pattern hair loss; and ivermectin cream (Soolantra) for rosacea as needed.

After a second periodic physical exam in February 2019, which included evaluations by a panel of 11 specialists, Conley reported “no interval change to the President’s medical or surgical history” and “no findings of significance.” He did, however, note an increase in Trump’s statin dose. Conley also said that Trump received vaccines for shingles and pneumonia.

In November 2019, Trump made an unscheduled visit to Walter Reed. A memo from Conley to then-White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham called it “a routine, planned interim checkup” and stressed that the president had no chest pain and “did not undergo any specialized cardiac or neurologic evaluations.”

Since then, Grisham said in her book that the visit was for a “routine colonoscopy.”

Trump’s father, Fred Trump, had Alzheimer’s disease and died at age 93 in June 1999 after being hospitalized with pneumonia. His mother, Mary MacLeod Trump, died at age 88 in August 2000; the cause of her death has not been shared.

Trump’s Mental Health

In January 2017, a group of mental health professionals led by John Gartner, PhD, a psychologist in Baltimore, published a petition suggesting that Trump “manifests a serious mental illness” and called for Trump’s removal from office in accordance with the 25th Amendment, which permits the removal of a president who is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”

That September, MedPage Today spoke with Allen Frances, MD, creator of the diagnostic criteria for narcissistic personality disorder, who said this diagnosis did not fit Trump.

Despite characterizing Trump as “absolutely a world-class narcissist,” Frances said he lacked “significant distress or impairment,” which is a feature of narcissistic personality disorder.

“Trump is a man who causes immense distress in others, but doesn’t seem to experience it very much himself,” he said.

Recently, four experts analyzed clips of Trump’s speeches over the last several months, comparing them with speeches from 2017, and found “more short sentences, confused word order, and repetition, alongside extended digressions such as Trump’s comments on Biden and Cary Grant.” Determining a cause for language shifts would entail in-person tests and interviews, one expert said.

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