A top doctor called out the White House’s baffling claim that President Donald Trump got an MRI for “preventative” reasons, saying there was “nothing standard” about getting the scan.
Dr. Jeffrey A. Linder, chief of general internal medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, told the Daily Beast that advanced imaging has never been a typical part of a presidential physical—contrary to what the White House claimed Monday.
“It’s just odd,” Linder said. “[The White House] kept saying that this is standard for an executive physical, which, that by itself is not a thing. There isn’t a standard executive physical.”
Linder said he was confused about why the White House report on Trump’s advanced imaging failed to specify which kind of imaging was performed.
“There’s nothing actually in the report that says whether he got a CAT scan or an MRI,” he said. “It’s pretty nonspecific about what it is, and then it’s just weird to have a test like this in a 79-year-old.”
“The phrase they keep using is ‘perfectly normal.’ That’s just very unusual,” he added. “If it’s true, you know, good for President Trump. But that’s a little bit unusual that all of these things would be totally normal.”
More often than not, radiology tests will produce some kind of finding—even asymptomatic, benign discoveries like lung nodules or liver cysts, Linder explained. “So it is very unusual to get two tests, unclear what they are, labeled as ‘perfectly normal.’”
Linder added: “I will say, from a public health standpoint, I’m actually concerned that people might get the impression that this is sort of routine, and it will actually distract people from stuff that will keep them healthy—like eating right, getting exercise, being a healthy weight."
In July, the White House announced that Trump, 79, was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), a condition that typically affects older people and results in swelling of the legs. But other than that, the White House has maintained that Trump has been in “excellent overall health.”
Linder said that CVI wouldn’t warrant an MRI.
“I am hard-pressed to understand why chronic venous insufficiency would lead to the kind of advanced imaging that’s incompletely described here,” he said. “It’s super common.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that Trump had “preventative” advanced imaging last month as part of his “comprehensive executive physical.”
The White House also released a statement from Dr. Sean Barbabella, the president’s physician, on Monday afternoon, which said that “President Trump remains in excellent health.”
“As part of President Donald J. Trump’s comprehensive executive physical, advanced imaging was performed because men in his age group benefit from a thorough evaluation of cardiovascular and abdominal health,” the statement, shared by the White House to X, read.
“The purpose of this imaging is preventative: to identify issues early, confirm overall health and ensure he maintains long-term vitality and function,” it continued. “This level of detailed assessment is standard for an executive physical at President Trump’s age and confirms that he remains in excellent health.”
Linder is not the only medical professional puzzled by the president’s “preventative” procedures.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who served as the late former Vice President Dick Cheney’s cardiologist for more than 30 years, called the explanation behind Trump’s advanced imaging “laughable.”
“There really is no preventative cardiac MRI,” Reiner, a medical analyst for CNN, said during an episode of CNN News Central on Monday. “This is not a standard test for an 80-year-old man to undergo advanced imaging.”
The analyst also commented on the frequency of Trump’s medical examinations, noting that the president already had a physical exam in April.
“If you look at his first administration, the president, like most presidents, only underwent one comprehensive physical exam every year, so this comes completely off-cycle,” he said.
Reiner also questioned the nature of the imaging, asking why Barbabella did not include the “specific advanced imaging” the president underwent.
“I hope the imaging is normal and great; that would be excellent news,” Reiner said. “But this kind of piece-by-piece, drip-by-drip release of information is just concerning.”
