Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that former President donald trump is now the oldest presidential candidate in history. He is the oldest presidential candidate. The article has been corrected.
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After weeks of intense focus on President Biden’s health and age, which 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 their health. condition than his former opponent.
Trump, a 78-year-old man with a history of heart disease and obesity, according to experts, has not shared any updated blood test results or other specific information during this campaign to help experts assess his ongoing medical risks.
Instead, he 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 released statement by campaign officials to The Washington Post that “there is no need for President Trump to release another medical report other than the one he recently made public.”
Seven days after the July 13 assassination attempt on him, Trump released a letter from his former White House doctor, Rep. Ronnie Jackson (R-Tex.), who described treating a two-inch-wide wound on Trump’s right ear and said he had a head CT scan and other tests but did not release the results. Jackson said in the letter that Trump was initially treated by medical staff at Butler Memorial Hospital in Butler, Pennsylvania, 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 supportive loyalists, did not respond to a request for comment. A hospital spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment.
Jackson previously said Trump passed 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 physical and mental health was questioned after a disastrous debate in June, Trump’s opponent will likely be Vice President Harris, a 59-year-old man with no publicly disclosed health problems. Harris did not release a detailed medical report as vice president. The White House and her campaign did not immediately respond to The Post’s questions 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 ahead of last week’s Republican convention found that 60% of Americans said Trump is too old for another term as president, including 82% of Democrats, 65% of independents and 29% of the 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 spokesperson 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 allow a doctor 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 was transparent with their doctors’ findings.
“It would eliminate the fear that someone has a problem that they’re not disclosing because they know it could affect their candidacy,” Ira Monka, president of the American Osteopathic Association, said in an interview before Biden’s withdrawal, referring to him and Trump. “This is the highest position in the world, so we want to have complete openness as much as possible. If the candidates agreed to that, I think the public would be very happy.”
Trump has a mixed record on releasing medical information. In 2015, during his first run for the White House, he said he instructed his doctor, Harold Bornstein, to release “a complete 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 announcements 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 that Trump’s coronary calcium score was 133, up up from 34 in 2009. At the time, CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta and other experts said the score indicated Trump had heart disease.
The letter also said that Trump weighed 239 pounds, making him borderline obese. Over the next two years, Trump’s doctors revealed that his weight had increased to 243 and then 244 pounds, making him obese by government standards.
But no such details have been released since Trump left the White House. After losing his reelection bid, Trump 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 serves high-income patients. Aronwald declined to speak to a Post reporter who in April visited his office in Morristown, NJ. He has never spoken publicly about Trump’s condition.
The letter released by Aronwald on Nov. 20 did not include specific results such as blood pressure or weight. Nor did he disclose Trump’s medications. Instead, he was full of superlatives, saying Trump was in “excellent health” and had “exceptional” cognitive ability. He claimed, without providing any numbers, that Trump had “cut his weight.” He said his cardiovascular studies were normal.
Trump said he has twice “taken advantage” of cognitive tests but has not disclosed them and has not said whether 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 out of date to be relevant. He said a candidate of 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 said his father was “confused about Alzheimer’s,” which experts say could increase Trump’s chances of inheriting the gene that can cause the disease. When Trump turned 50, he told Playboy magazine that seeing his father face cognitive problems had a profound effect on him.
“Turning 50 makes you think about mortality, or immortality, or whatever,” Trump said.
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Scott Clement contributed to this report.
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