Donald Trump undergoes annual medical check-up – but report likely to be scarce on details
Donald Trump has had his annual medical check-up, although the US president has consistently chosen to keep basic facts about his health secret.
There is no guarantee the public will be told about the health of a man who, at the age of 78, was the oldest in US history to be sworn in as president.
“I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!” Mr Trump posted on his social media site.
He will be examined at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Washington DC, but he will have leeway over what details are released.
If history is repeated, his latest physical examination is likely to produce a flattering report that is scarce on details.
It represents the first potential opportunity to discover the status of Mr Trump’s health since an assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July last year.
Donald Trump was defiant after a failed assassination attempt in July. Pic: AP
At that time, Ronny Jackson, a staunch supporter who served as his White House doctor, wrote a memo describing a gunshot wound to Mr Trump’s right ear. He once joked that the president could live to be 200 if he had a healthier diet.
Despite Mr Trump promising in a CBS interview last August that he would “very gladly” release his medical records, he never did.
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During President Biden’s time in office, medical reports have typically included vital statistics like height, weight, heart rate, blood pressure and cholesterol results, along with any medical symptoms. Other checks have included the vital organs and a neurological assessment.
Mr Trump has offered few details about his health over the years, despite repeatedly questioning the physical and mental capacity of his predecessor Mr Biden, who is three years older.
Trump contracted COVID-19 in 2020. Pic: Reuters
In 2020, President Trump contracted COVID-19. After his recovery, more details emerged that he had been sicker than he had let on.
In November 2023, Mr Trump’s doctor released a letter to coincide with Mr Biden’s 81st birthday, saying Mr Trump was in “excellent” physical and mental health.
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It said that his “physical exams were well within the normal range and his cognitive exams were exceptional”, adding he had “reduced his weight”.
But there were a lot of details missing, including weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or the results of any tests.
Trump takes anti-baldness pills
During his first term in office, his first medical check-up as president included details of his daily anti-baldness pills. But subsequent medical examinations were less transparent.
In November 2019, Mr Trump underwent a medical examination which was not revealed until three days later. He would only say it was a “very routine physical”.
A year later, an examination found he was technically obese and was taking medication to treat high cholesterol.
Before Mr Trump first ran for office in 2015, the results of a medical examination were described as “astonishingly excellent” by his personal doctor.
Dr Harold Bornstein stated at the time that Mr Trump would be the “healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”
The doctor later admitted to CNN that Mr Trump had dictated those words to him.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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