One topic that has been at a sort of low boil, since Donald Trump returned to office just over a year ago, has been the topic of the president’s health. Why did the president have a mysterious MRI exam? Why does he fall asleep so often in meetings? What’s going on with those marks on his hands? And after Joe Biden’s visible aging helped bring about the end of his presidency, might the 79-year-old Trump have a political problem of his own, with his health?
Reporter Ben Terris, in a piece published Monday in New York magazine, published a piece about the issue, illustrated with a photo of the president struggling to walk up the stairs on Air Force One, and topped by the headline, “The Superhuman President’: A good-faith attempt to ascertain the truth about Donald Trump’s health.”
The “Superhuman” headline, Terris writes, was suggested by Stephen Miller, presumably in between ordering deadly military operations on the streets of Minneapolis.
Terris went to the White House, in fact, to interview Trump about the subject. When Terris arrived, the report said, Trump was “standing next to a couple of men clutching pieces of paper labeled TALKING POINTS.”
The absurdity of the lies surrounding Trump’s physical and mental health is Stalinesque https://t.co/PGVO3WUD6n
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) January 26, 2026
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“These are two doctors,” Trump told Terris. “And by the way, I don’t know them; they’re not my best friends. They’re respected doctors that practice out of Walter Reed. And they happen to be taking care of me for anything — but I don’t need any taking care of because I’m in perfect health. I do purposely every year or less a physical, because I think the American people should know that the president is healthy so you don’t get a guy like the last one, who was the worst thing that ever happened to older people. Because I know people in their 90s that are 100 percent. Gary Player is 90 years old. He shot 70 with me the other day.”
He also threatened to sue his interviewer.
Trump also said that he consumes a great deal of aspirin. “I want thin blood,” he said. “Real thin blood.”
Fred Trump died in 1999 at age 93. He had, Trump said, a “heart that couldn’t be stopped” with almost no health conditions to speak of throughout his long life. “He had one problem,” Trump said. “At a certain age, about 86, 87, he started getting, what do they call it?” He pointed to his forehead and looked to his press secretary for the word that escaped him.“Alzheimer’s,” Leavitt said.“Like an Alzheimer’s thing,” Trump said. “Well, I don’t have it.”“Is it something you think about at all?” I asked.“No, I don’t think about it at all. You know why?” he said. “Because whatever it is, my attitude is whatever.”
“Then there’s the fact there’s enough evidence in the public record to fit anyone’s prior beliefs. He clearly seemed to be sleeping in meetings but can speak on his feet for over an hour during late-night rallies. He goes on grueling international trips, and his voice often sounds shot for days after he returns. He stayed up all night at Mar-a-Lago to track the capture of Maduro (and took a phone call from a New York Times reporter at 4:30 a.m.) but then seemed to be struggling with the stairs of Air Force One. In November, Trump went viral for having a hard time walking in a video with his grandson, but later that day I watched him march in lockstep with Melania through a rainy field to get to his Marine One helicopter without so much as a stumble. Some typically worrisome signs of mental deterioration — erratic behavior, convoluted speaking, threatening to invade Greenland because he did not receive a Nobel Peace Prize — may also be Trump being Trump.
