{"id":23456,"date":"2026-05-31T09:22:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T09:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trumps-doctor-declares-him-fully-fit-and-blames-frequent-handshaking-for-bruising\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T09:22:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T09:22:06","slug":"trumps-doctor-declares-him-fully-fit-and-blames-frequent-handshaking-for-bruising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trumps-doctor-declares-him-fully-fit-and-blames-frequent-handshaking-for-bruising\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s doctor declares him \u2018fully fit\u2019 and blames \u2018frequent handshaking\u2019 for bruising"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Donald Trump’s physician declared him in “excellent health,” but recommended the president lose weight and exercise more following his latest physical exam.<\/p>\n

“Cognitive and physical performance are excellent,” Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella wrote in his report released on Friday. “He is fully fit to carry out all duties of the Commander-in-Chief and Head of State.”<\/p>\n

Trump —the oldest person to be sworn in as president, who turns 80 next month — showed “strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and overall physical function,” the doctor wrote. “His demanding daily schedule, including multiple high-level meetings, public engagements, and regular physical activity, continues to support his overall well-being.”<\/p>\n

The president’s weight was recorded as 238 lbs, 14 lbs heavier than what was reported in his April 2025 physical. Barbabella said he provided guidance to Trump on his diet, as well as advice to take low-dose aspirin, increase physical activity and lose weight.<\/p>\n

Trump underwent his annual physical exam on Tuesday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Afterward, he wrote on Truth Social<\/a>“Everything checked out PERFECTLY.”<\/p>\n

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In his memo, Barbabella, who previously diagnosed Trump with chronic venous insufficiency, noted swelling in the president’s lower leg “with improvement from last year.” He attributed bruising on Trump’s hands to be “consistent with minor soft tissue irritation related to frequent handshaking.”<\/p>\n

The swelling in Trump’s legs and bruising on his hands have been the subject of increasing scrutiny and speculation<\/a> about the aging president’s fitness for office<\/a>. The White House has attributed the bruising on the president’s hands to his frequent handshaking, as Barbabella noted in his latest report.<\/p>\n

Trump has also appeared to nod off <\/a>during public appearances. He has dismissed criticism of those incidents, saying he was merely “resting his eyes.”<\/p>\n

Trump often boasts about the results of his medical exams, saying he has “aced” cognitive tests and that “the numbers were perfect” on his physical. He has frequently insisted that he is fit to serve as president, but his mental acuity for office<\/a> has been called into question<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The latest physical, the third of his second term, took place amid mounting questions and public concerns about his health<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May. 30, 2026, 10:40 AM EDT President Donald Trump’s physician declared him in “excellent health,” but recommended the president lose weight and exercise more following his latest physical exam. “Cognitive and physical performance are excellent,” Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella wrote in his report released on Friday. “He is fully fit to carry out all duties […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}