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, culminating in his withdrawal from the campaign trail on Sunday, the script has been flipped: Former President Donald Trump is now the oldest presidential candidate in history — and one who has been less open about his medical condition than his former opponent.
Trump, a 78-year-old with a history of heart disease and obesity, did not share updated blood test results or other specific information during the campaign to help experts assess his ongoing medical risks, according to experts.
Instead, he released a vague three-paragraph letter from his family doctor, 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 from campaign officials to The Washington Post that “President Trump is not required to release any other medical report beyond the one he recently made public.”
Seven days after his July 13 assassination attempt, Trump released a letter from his former White House physician, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Tex.), who described treating a 3/4-inch-wide wound to Trump’s right ear and said he had undergone a CT scan of his head and other tests but would not release the results. Jackson said in the letter that Trump was initially treated by medical staff at Butler Memorial Hospital in Butler, Pa., and that he saw the former president later that evening at Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, N.J. Jackson, who has been one of Trump’s most loyal supporters, did not respond to a request for comment. A hospital spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
Jackson has previously said that Trump aced a cognitive test when he was president, but those results have not yet been released.
Now, instead of facing an 81-year-old candidate whose mental and physical health were in question after a disastrous June debate, Trump’s opponent will most likely be Vice President Harris, a 59-year-old with no publicly disclosed health conditions. 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 major 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 to serve 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 were angry about what they saw as an unfair critical focus on his age compared to Trump.
A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign 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 race’s past emphasis on health, voters would benefit if everyone in the race were transparent about their doctors’ findings.
“It would eliminate the fear that someone might have a problem that they don’t disclose 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 both him and Trump. “This is the highest office in the world, so we want as much full disclosure as possible. If the candidates could 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 race for the White House, he said he directed his doctor, Harold Bornstein, to release “a complete medical report” and promised that “it would be perfect.” Bornstein did not release Trump’s records, but instead sent a four-paragraph letter saying that Trump would be “the healthiest person ever elected president.” Bornstein, who died in 2021, later told CNN that Trump “dictated that entire letter.”
In September 2016, Trump released another letter from Bornstein, which contained more information and concluded that Trump was “in excellent physical health.”
One of the most detailed revelations about Trump’s health came during his presidency in 2018, when Jackson appeared onstage in the White House press room and provided details including a CT scan that showed Trump’s coronary calcium score was 133, up from 34 in 2009. At the time, CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta and other experts said the score indicated Trump had a heart condition.
The letter also said that Trump weighed 239 pounds, which made 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 such details have not been released since Trump left the White House. After losing his reelection bid, Trump has relied on Aronwald, an osteopathic physician 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 with a Post reporter who visited his Morristown, N.J., office in April. He has never spoken publicly about Trump’s condition.
The letter, which Aronwald released on November 20, did not provide specific results, such as blood pressure or weight. Nor did it disclose Trump’s medications. Instead, the letter was full of superlatives, saying that Trump was in “excellent health” and had “exceptional” cognitive abilities. It said, without giving figures, that Trump had “reduced his weight.” It said that his cardiovascular tests were normal.
Trump has said he has “passed” a cognitive test twice, but he has not released the results and has not said whether he has taken one since 2018. Ziad Nasreddine, the neurologist who developed the test, told The Post earlier this year that a six-year-old test was too outdated to be relevant. He said a candidate as old as Trump would have to take cognitive tests regularly and make the results public.
Some experts previously told The Post that Trump could be at increased genetic risk for dementia. Trump has said his father “has 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 struggle with cognitive problems had a profound effect on him.
“When you turn 50, you start thinking about mortality, or immortality, or whatever,” Trump said.
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Scott Clement contributed to this report.
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