Washington, United States. U.S. President Donald Trump 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.
Health questions
Trump, who turns 80 next month, has frequently portrayed 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. Trump became the oldest person to assume the presidency when he began his second term in January 2025.
Recent photographs showing a blotchy neck rash added to questions about Trump’s health, following images in July 2025 of swollen ankles and a bruised hand concealed with makeup. The visit to Walter Reed was his third in 13 months.
White House statements
Trump maintains an active golf schedule, but recently joked about his relative lack of exercise at an Oval Office event where health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the president walks nine miles, or 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. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt later said Trump’s leg swelling was from a “common” vein condition and that his hand was bruised from shaking so many hands.
