United States President Donald Trump has dismissed concerns about his health in a new interview with The Wall Street Journal, despite scrutiny of his sometimes-drowsy appearance and the patches of makeup that have recently appeared on his hand.
The interview appeared in Thursday’s edition of the newspaper. In its pages, the Wall Street Journal reporters confronted Trump with questions about his age, fitness and statements about his recent health treatments.
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The US president appeared to respond with some mild irritation at points. “Let’s talk about health again for the 25th time,” Trump told the interviewers at the outset of their conversation.
Trump is currently 79 years old. Should he complete his second term in full, he will be 82 years old by its conclusion.
That would make him the oldest sitting president in US history, breaking the record set by his predecessor, Joe Biden.
But just as Biden faced scrutiny for his ageing mind and body, so too has Trump. Since taking office for a second term in January 2025, Trump has been recorded appearing to nod off during public appearances, and close-up images of his hand as recently as December show thick patches of makeup.
Trump himself also raised alarm in October when he told reporters that he had undergone a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, a procedure commonly used to diagnose and monitor serious conditions such as cancer, heart disease and other disorders that affect soft tissue.
‘Nothing’s wrong,’ Trump insists
In Thursday’s interview, Trump backtracked, clarifying that he had not received an MRI scan but rather a computed tomography (CT) scan, which offers less detail and is faster.
One of his doctors had previously identified the procedure as a CT scan instead of an MRI, too.
When discussing the mix-up, Trump told The Wall Street Journal he regretted getting any procedure at all, as it fuelled his critics as well as media speculation.
“In retrospect, it’s too bad I took it because it gave them a little ammunition,” Trump told the newspaper.
“I would have been a lot better off if they didn’t, because the fact that I took it said, ‘Oh gee, is something wrong?’ Well, nothing’s wrong.”
He denied having any ailments whatsoever. “My health is perfect,” he told the reporters.
Trump also rejected the idea that he had dozed off at public meetings. In one instance — Trump’s December 2 cabinet meeting — the president’s eyelids appeared to droop, and he slouched forward, as if nodding off.
But in his Wall Street Journal interview, Trump blamed the media for creating false rumours. “Sometimes they’ll take a picture of me blinking, blinking, and they’ll catch me with the blink,” he said of the alleged sleeping incidents.
Still, he acknowledged to the newspaper that he had asked White House staff to slim down his schedule to focus on more important meetings, though he emphasised the decision had nothing to do with his alertness or stamina.
“I’ve never been a big sleeper,” Trump said.
High dose of aspirin
One of the big revelations from the Journal’s interview was the high volume of aspirin Trump admitted to taking.
“They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart,” Trump said. “I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart.”
Daily aspirin therapy is sometimes recommended to prevent a heart attack or stroke, particularly in older people.
But while the typical dosage starts at approximately 75mg, according to the Mayo Clinic, Trump told the Journal he consumes about 325mg per day — on the higher end of the spectrum.
“They’d rather have me take the smaller one,” Trump said of his doctors. “I take the larger one, but I’ve done it for years.”
Trump credited the high aspirin regimen for causing easy bruising on his hands, another source of persistent public scrutiny. He explained that he turns to makeup to conceal when he has been “whacked again by someone”.
“I have makeup that’s, you know, easy to put on, takes about 10 seconds,” he said, citing a past incident when Attorney General Pam Bondi accidentally cut his hand with her ring.
Trump, an avid golfer, also confirmed to the Journal that he does not share the enthusiasm for exercise and fitness that cabinet members like Robert F Kennedy Jr or Pete Hegseth share.
“I just don’t like it. It’s boring,” Trump said. “To walk on a treadmill or run on a treadmill for hours and hours like some people do, that’s not for me.”
Nevertheless, last August, Trump announced he would be relaunching the Presidential Fitness Test — a nationwide physical fitness test for grade-school students — in public schools. The test had been phased out in 2013 in favour of more inclusive fitness standards.
Members of Trump’s administration have also been criticised for fatphobic comments, particularly those directed at top military leaders with decorated service.
At a meeting in Quantico, Virginia, in October, Hegseth told hundreds of military leaders that “it’s tiring to look out at combat formations” and “see fat troops”, or enter the Pentagon and “see fat generals and admirals in the halls”.
Presidential fitness has been an increasingly pressing concern in the US political sphere, particularly since the tumult of the 2024 presidential election, which saw Biden drop his re-election bid less than four months before the vote due to questions about his age.
In a particularly disastrous June 2024 presidential debate, the then-81-year-old Biden appeared to struggle to complete his thoughts.
Trump, who has faced similar criticisms, blasted Biden as “Sleepy Joe” on the campaign trail and continues to invoke his Democratic rival’s competency as a contrast to his own.
Questions about ageing presidents, though, have long been a concern as older candidates take office.
Republican Ronald Reagan famously faced rumours about his competency, particularly as he ran for a second term in the 1980s. He was 77 years old when he left office, and by 1994, he announced he had Alzheimer’s disease.
But Trump has consistently denied feeling the ravages of age, and in Thursday’s interview, he once again took the opportunity to credit his genes for his success: “I have very good genetics.”