Doctors Raise Red Flags on Key Missing Details in Trump Physical Report

Donald Trump’s latest physical was supposed to reassure the public that the 79-year-old president remains in excellent health.

Instead, it is raising a new round of questions.

Doctors who reviewed the White House medical summary say the report paints an unusually glowing picture of Trump’s health while leaving out several of the clinical details that would normally back up such sweeping claims.

Trump’s physician, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, wrote that the president “remains in excellent health,” citing strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological and overall physical function after a roughly three-hour exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

The memo also reported a perfect cognitive score, low cholesterol numbers, and an AI-assisted heart analysis that suggested Trump’s heart was 14 years younger than his actual age.

That claim quickly drew skepticism from medical experts.

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist who previously served as former Vice President Dick Cheney’s physician, told CNN that cardiology colleagues laughed when the finding came up.

The problem, doctors said, is not simply that the report is positive. It is that it is light on the hard numbers and specifics physicians would expect to see in a serious public health disclosure about the oldest sitting president in U.S. history.

The memo said Trump underwent several tests, including a coronary CT angiography, an echocardiogram and an AI-enhanced electrocardiogram. But it did not include key results such as a calcium score, a detailed description of plaque buildup, or a CAD-RADS score, which is used to evaluate narrowing in the arteries.

Instead, the report said there was “no arterial obstruction or structural abnormalities.”

Some doctors warned that language may not mean Trump’s arteries are perfectly clean. It could simply mean there was no total blockage.

Dr. William Shutze, a Texas vascular surgeon, told The Wall Street Journal that if he were sending a report to another doctor, he would have included more detail about Trump’s carotid ultrasound, including how much plaque was present.

That matters because plaque buildup is common with age, and doctors say the absence of specifics makes the report harder to judge.

The echocardiogram section also stood out. Trump’s 2018 report included an ejection fraction, which measures how much blood the heart pumps with each contraction. This report did not.

The White House pushed back, saying the lack of detailed discussion should not be taken as evidence that something was hidden. Officials said medication lists in executive summaries are often shortened for readability and relevance, and that the absence of certain results should be viewed as confirmation that doctors found no clinically meaningful problems.

But outside physicians were not convinced that the document gave the public enough information.

The report also left out any mention of a neck rash that appeared earlier this year. That rash previously led Barbabella to issue a memo saying Trump was using a preventive cream for an unspecified skin condition. Earlier physicals had gone into more detail about sun damage and benign skin lesions, but this one did not address the rash at all.

The memo did mention bruising on Trump’s hands, which Barbabella attributed to frequent handshaking and aspirin use. Trump previously told The Wall Street Journal that he takes more aspirin than his doctor recommends because he wants “nice, thin blood pouring through my heart.” The new report did not say what dosage he is currently taking.

There were also questions about Trump’s lower leg swelling. Last year, he was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a common circulation problem in older adults. This latest report said the swelling was “slight” and had improved from last year, but it did not explain what changed.

Trump has previously said he resisted wearing compression socks, which are a standard treatment. Doctors told the Journal that improvement without treatment would be unusual. The White House said the severity of the condition can fluctuate.

One of the most striking parts of the report was Trump’s cholesterol. His HDL was listed at 70 mg/dL, while his LDL was listed at 53 mg/dL.

Dr. Daniel Torrent, a Georgia vascular surgeon, said those numbers were unusually strong for someone Trump’s age, even with medication.

“He’s got like the best cholesterol numbers you’ll see,” Torrent said, adding that doctors do not usually manage patients to the point where their numbers are that good.

The White House said the results were consistent with expected outcomes from treatment.

The report also listed Trump’s prostate-specific antigen score at 1 ng/mL. That was higher than previous scores but still considered well within a healthy range. The detail comes after former President Joe Biden was diagnosed shortly after leaving office with aggressive prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. Biden’s physicals had not included a PSA test.

Still, the broader concern among doctors reviewing Trump’s exam was not one specific number. It was the overall pattern.

The report described a president in remarkably strong health while omitting several pieces of data that would normally help doctors verify the conclusion.

Shutze told the Journal the report was “almost too good to be true for somebody of his age” and called it “a filtered narrative.”

White House communications director Steven Cheung blasted the criticism, accusing outside doctors of speculating about a patient they had not examined.

“Outside doctors wildly speculating about an individual’s health, especially when they aren’t a patient, is reckless and goes against the oath they took,” Cheung said.

He also claimed Trump has released more detailed health information than any other president in history and contrasted Trump’s report with Biden’s health disclosures.

But Trump has a long history of medical reports that drew scrutiny.

During the 2016 campaign, his longtime physician famously claimed Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” That doctor later said Trump dictated the letter himself.

Now, nearly a decade later, another Trump health report is facing similar questions.

The White House says the president is in excellent condition.

Some doctors say the public is being asked to accept that conclusion without seeing enough of the evidence behind it.