Trump’s health has always been a topic of debate, but according to a medical professor, there is evidence that the president suffered a stroke last year and has never fully recovered.
“My impression is that President Trump has had a stroke, and I think there are several lines of evidence supporting that,” said Bruce Davidson, a pulmonary medicine professor at Washington State University, on The Court of History podcast. “I think his stroke was on the left side of the brain, which controls the right side of the body.”
People have noticed Trump struggling in public. He has slurred speech, strange bruises on his hands, gets tired easily, and sometimes seems confused. Davidson pointed to videos from earlier in 2025 showing Trump shuffling his feet, holding his right hand in his left, and garbling words. Davidson said these signs are what can happen after a stroke.
Trump also has had very long daytime naps. Davidson said this is called hypersomnolence and happens to many people after a stroke. A recent video shows Trump walking down the stairs from Air Force One, holding the banister with his left hand even though he is right-handed. Davidson says this is also consistent with a stroke on the left side of the brain.
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Davidson explained the stroke may help explain Trump’s extreme actions early in 2026. In the first weeks, he invaded Venezuela, threatened Greenland, sent federal agents to Minneapolis, investigated Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, pulled the U.S. out of many international groups, and moved $500 billion of Venezuelan oil money to Qatar.
“People who get a stroke, have a stroke, it’s a very serious, concerning, life-threatening, upsetting, scary thing, and people react in different ways,” said Davidson. “Some people respond with humility, grateful to be alive and viewing life as precious. Others become, as they improve, become positively euphoric, that, ‘I was at the cliff of death, and now I’m back,’ and some view it as, ‘That was my chance to die, and I didn’t, and now I’m going to do everything I wanted to do, because the next one may be fatal.’”
Trump’s high-dose aspirin use may be another sign. He told The Wall Street Journal he takes 325 milligrams four times a day. Davidson said, “The instruction to take one full aspirin, 325 milligrams daily, is solely, only for the prevention of recurrent repeat stroke after partial 50% or more blockage, occlusion of a large vessel in the brain. It’s not recommended for anything for the heart, and we were told that President Trump’s chest CT scan was unremarkable, was fine.”
Davidson said Trump does not show signs of dementia. He can understand questions and respond, even if the answers are strange or extreme. “So I do not see dementia, for which I’m glad, but it is common after strokes for people to behave, as some people say, more like they were beforehand,” Davidson said. “So if President Trump had a brash personality, I think everyone would say, long ago, he appears to have become even more so.”
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
