Trump’s Age and Health under Renewed Scrutiny after Biden’s Exit

The Washington Post / Michael Kranish

14:32 JST, July 23, 2024

After weeks of intense focus on President Biden’s health and age that ended with his withdrawal from the campaign on Sunday, the script has flipped: Former president Donald Trump is now the oldest presidential candidate in history – and one who has been less transparent about his medical condition than has his former opponent.

Trump, a 78-year-old with a history of heart disease and obesity, according to experts, has not shared any updated bloodwork results or other specific information during this campaign to help experts assess his ongoing medical risks.

Instead, he has released a vague, three-paragraph letter from his primary care physician, Bruce A. Aronwald, who wrote in November that the former president was in excellent physical and mental health, and who later said in a statement released by campaign officials to The Washington Post that “there is no need for President Trump to release another medical report in addition to the one he recently made public.”

Seven days after the attempted assassination against him on July 13, Trump released a letter from his former White House physician, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Tex.), who described treating a two-centimeter-wide wound to Trump’s right ear and said he had a CT scan of his head and other tests but did not release the results. Jackson said in the letter that Trump was initially treated by the medical staff at Butler Memorial Hospital in Butler, Pa., and that he saw the former president later that night at Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, N.J. Jackson, who is one of Trump’s most loyal supporters, did not respond to a request for comment. A hospital spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment.

Jackson has previously said that Trump aced a cognitive test when he was president, but those results also have not been released.

Now, instead of facing an 81-year-old candidate whose mental and physical health were questioned after a disastrous debate in June, Trump’s opponent is most likely to be Vice President Harris, a 59-year-old with no publicly disclosed health issues. Harris has not released a detailed medical report as vice president. The White House and her campaign did not immediately respond to questions from The Post about whether she would do so as a presidential candidate.

The age of presidential candidates has been a key issue for voters this year. A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll, conducted before last week’s Republican convention, found that 60 percent of Americans said Trump is too old for another term as president, including 82 percent of Democrats, 65 percent of independents and 29 percent of Republicans. Before Biden dropped out of the race, many Democrats bristled at what they argued was an unfair critical focus on his age compared to Trump.

A Trump campaign spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

There is no requirement for presidential candidates to release medical records, and they would have to agree to waive privacy laws to enable a physician to do so. But medical experts said that given Trump’s age and the previous emphasis on health in the race, voters would benefit if everyone in the race were transparent with their doctors’ findings.

“It would take away the fear that someone has an issue that is not being disclosed because they know if might affect their candidacy,” Ira Monka, president of the American Osteopathic Association, said in an interview before Biden’s withdrawal, referring to both him and Trump. “This is the highest office in the world so we want to have complete openness as much as possible. If the candidates would agree on that, I think the public would be very happy.”

Trump has a mixed history of releasing medical information. In 2015, during his first run for the White House, he said he instructed his doctor, Harold Bornstein, to release “a full medical report” and promised “it will show perfection.” Bornstein did not release Trump’s records, but instead issued a four-paragraph letter that said Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” Bornstein, who died in 2021, later told CNN that Trump “dictated that whole letter.”

In September 2016, Trump released another letter from Bornstein that included more information and concluded that Trump was “in excellent physical health.”

One of the most detailed releases about Trump’s health came during his presidency in 2018, when Jackson appeared at the White House press room podium and provided details that included a CT scan showing Trump’s coronary calcium score was 133, up from 34 in 2009. At the time, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, and other experts said the score indicated that Trump had heart disease.

The letter also said Trump weighed 239 pounds, making him borderline obese. The following two years, Trump’s doctors revealed that his weight had increased to 243 and then 244 pounds, making him obese under government standards.

But no such details have been released since Trump left the White House. After losing his reelection bid, Trump has relied on Aronwald, a doctor of osteopathic medicine who is a member of Trump’s Bedminster golf course and runs a private “concierge” practice that caters to high-income patients. Aronwald declined to speak to a Post reporter who in April visited his office in Morristown, N.J. He has never spoken publicly about Trump’s condition.

The letter Aronwald released on Nov. 20 did not include specific results such as blood pressure or weight. Nor did it disclose Trump’s medications. Instead, it was filled with superlatives, saying Trump was in “excellent health” and had “exceptional” cognitive ability. It said without providing any numbers that Trump had “reduced his weight.” It said his cardiovascular studies were normal.

Trump has said he twice “aced” cognitive tests, but he has not released them and has not said if he has taken one since 2018. Ziad Nasreddine, the neurologist who created the test, told The Post earlier this year that a six-year-old test would be too outdated to be relevant. He said that a candidate who is Trump’s age should take regular cognitive tests and publicly release the results.

Some experts previously told The Post that Trump could face an elevated genetic risk of dementia. Trump has said that his father was “addled with Alzheimer’s,” which specialists said could increase Trump’s chances of inheriting the gene that can cause the disease. When Trump turned 50, he told Playboy magazine that watching his father face cognitive problems had a profound effect on him.

“Turning 50 does make you think about mortality, or immortality, or whatever,” Trump said.