On Sunday night, responding to a challenge from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Donald Trump said he’d gladly release the results of his recent MRI — even as the president said he still had “no idea” which part of his body was scanned. A day later, the White House tried to follow through.
According to a memo from the president’s physician dated Monday, Trump received an MRI on his heart and abdomen in early October, which the document described as “standard.” The same memo said the test results came back “perfectly normal.”
This did not, however, put the matter to rest — at least not entirely. The New York Times reported soon after, “Some medical experts said it was unclear what tests doctors conducted, why they were done or what the results mean. And, they said, a person without symptoms would not have imaging tests as part of a routine medical exam under ordinary medical circumstances.”
For her part, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt characterized the medical scrutiny as “preventative, to identify any issues early.”
I won’t claim to have any expertise in this area, but Dr. Vin Gupta, a medical analyst for MS NOW, recently explained online, “Even if you are leader of the free world, you don’t just get an MRI without a clear reason to do so. There’s no such thing as a ‘screening’ MRI.”
Similarly, Dr. Ron Blankstein, a preventive cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, told the Times that imaging “is not recommended for people with no symptoms of heart disease.”
For those who might be new to this story, it was a week after the medical exam that Leavitt conceded that she didn’t know why this specific test was ordered. A week after that, the president himself acknowledged during a brief Q&A with reporters that he’d undergone magnetic resonance imaging, but he declined to say why his doctors had ordered the scan.
The issue lingered in the background for a while. On Nov. 4, Leavitt boasted about Trump’s “optimal physical health,” though she didn’t know the reason for his MRI. On Nov. 12, the press secretary again insisted that the president was in “exceptional physical health,” adding that the results were reviewed by “radiologists and consultants,” but she offered no additional details.
Two days later, the Republican boasted to reporters, “I had an MRI. The doctor said it was the best result he has ever seen as a doctor.” Asked whether the MRI was on his brain, Trump replied, “I have no idea what they analyzed, but whatever they analyzed, they analyzed it well. And they said that I had as good a result as they’ve ever seen.”
Two weeks later, the president thought it would be a good idea to condemn Walz using an ableist slur, which led the Minnesota Democrat to call on Trump to release the results of his MRI. The challenge led to a fresh line of inquiry and a series of weird comments from the president.
It also led to a new physician’s memo, which failed to clarify matters.
I continue to believe that there may be nothing to this story, but given Trump’s unfortunate record, he hasn’t exactly earned the benefit of the doubt on questions of medical transparency.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
