By Bo Erickson
WASHINGTON, May 26 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump, who turns 80 next month, arrived on Tuesday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for his annual physical, following a year of public attention on apparently minor health issues.
Trump 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, following images in July 2025 of swollen ankles and a bruised hand concealed with makeup.
Trump, whose birthday is June 14, became the oldest person to assume the presidency when he began his second term in January 2025.
The visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center was Trump’s third in 13 months.
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 (14.5 km) every time he goes golfing.
“When I am not using the cart,” Trump said.
White House physician Sean Barbabella 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, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Trump said last October that he had received a magnetic resonance imaging 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.
“Getting an MRI is very standard. What, you think I shouldn’t have it? Other people get it. … I had an MRI. The doctor said it was the best result he has ever seen as a doctor,” Trump said.
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.
Trump has also 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.”
Biden last year was diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that spread to his bones, and underwent radiation therapy.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson; Editing by Ross Colvin and Will Dunham)
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