President Donald Trump will sit for a “routine yearly check up” at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday, the White House announced on Wednesday, ahead of a possible trip to the Middle East.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Wednesday that Trump would be at Walter Reed Medical Center for a planned meeting with service members.
“While there, President Trump will stop by for his routine yearly check up,” before returning to the White House and possibly making a trip to the Middle East amid peace-deal negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
Trump referred to the potential trip during a roundtable at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, saying, “I’ll be going to Egypt, most likely, that’s where everybody is gathered right now.”
Trump underwent an annual physical examination at Walter Reed in April that included diagnostic and laboratory testing, and provided a first public look into the president’s health during his second term.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why the president was having a “yearly check-up” after having an annual examination six months earlier.
White House physician Sean Barbabella said in a memo at the time of the first exam that Trump was in “excellent health.”
“President exhibits excellent cognitive and physical health and is fully fit to execute the duties of the Commander-in-Chief and Head of State,” Barbabella wrote in the April memo.
The memo also listed a cholesterol drug and indicated that Trump was in the overweight category.
Trump, 79, became the oldest person elected president in November. He was just a few months older than former President Joe Biden was when he was elected in 2020.
Trump’s health fueled online rumors recently after he wasn’t seen publicly for a stretch of several days leading up to Labor Day weekend.
The presence of a bruise on the back of his right hand, which at times appears to be concealed with makeup, has also been a focus of speculation in recent months.
In February, the White House said the bruise stemmed from Trump “constantly working and shaking hands all day every day.” His physician subsequently wrote in a report in July that the bruise was a side effect of Trump’s aspirin regimen to prevent cardiovascular problems.
Trump has come under scrutiny in the past over a lack of transparency in the portrayal of his health.
His former physician Dr. Harold Bornstein said that Trump once dictated a statement, attributed to Bornstein, that painted Trump’s health as “astonishingly excellent,” during his first presidential campaign in 2015. Trump also asked personnel during a visit to Walter Reed in 2019 to sign nondisclosure agreements in connection with the visit which turned out to be a colonoscopy.
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