Donald Trump furiously lashed out at The New York Times for an article saying that he is showing signs of aging and has significantly reduced his workload in his second term.
In a seething post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump attacked the physical appearance of a female journalist who co-wrote the report, which noted that the president significantly scaled back his public appearances compared to the first 10 months of his first term and shows “signs of wear” when he does appear.
“The Radical Left Lunatics in the soon to fold New York Times did a hit piece on me that I am perhaps losing my Energy, despite facts that show the exact opposite. They know this is wrong, as is almost every thing that they write about me, including election results, ALL PURPOSELY NEGATIVE,” Trump wrote.
“The writer of the story, Katie Rogers, who is assigned to write only bad things about me, is a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out. Despite all of this, I have my highest Poll Numbers, ever, and with record setting investment being made in America, they should only go up,” he added.
“There will be a day when I run low on Energy, it happens to everyone, but with a PERFECT PHYSICAL EXAM AND A COMPREHENSIVE COGNITIVE TEST (“That was aced”) JUST RECENTLY TAKEN, it certainly is not now!”
Trump, who is on course to be the oldest sitting president in U.S. history, didn’t help his argument that he is not suffering physical or cognitive decline in his rambling Truth Social Post.
While listing off his accomplishments during the 2024 election, the president wrote that he “one our Nation’s Districts by 2750 to 550,” instead using the correct word “won.”
In response, a spokesperson for the Times told the Daily Beast that their reporting is “accurate and built on firsthand reporting of the facts.”
“Name-calling and personal insults don’t change that, nor will our journalists hesitate to cover this administration in the face of intimidation tactics like this,” the spokesperson said.
Trump has frequently lashed out at suggestions that he is in mental or physical decline—a criticism long aimed at his 83-year-old predecessor, Joe Biden.
This is despite Trump often appearing in public with bruises on his hands and swollen cankles, and confirming that he underwent an MRI scan at his second physical in a year.
Questions about Trump’s apparent diminished state were raised earlier this month when the 79-year-old president seemed to doze off during a press conference in the Oval Office regarding the cost of weight-loss drugs.
Tuesday’s exposé from The New York Times suggests that Trump may be lowering his workload to better cope with the strains of being president. This includes scaling back his official appearances by 39 percent—from 1,688 appearances during the first ten months of his first term down to 1,029 this year.
Trump is now starting his day later on average than he did during his first term and is working for shorter periods. In 2017, Trump’s scheduled events began just after 10:30 a.m. on average, according to the Times’ analysis of Roll Call data.
However, Trump now begins his planned events in the afternoon on average, at 12:08 p.m., while still ending them just after 5 p.m.
The White House has attempted to push back on claims that Trump’s health is in decline or that it is hiding his frailties from the American public.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Daily Beast that it has been “open and transparent about the president’s health, which remains exceptional,” whereas the previous administration “covered up Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and hid him from the press.”
Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University, suggested that Trump’s aides may also be taking steps to ensure the true extent of the 79-year-old’s health issues are being shielded.
“The people around him are similar to Biden’s aides,” Dallek told the Times. “They would talk as if we’re living in a little bit of a fantasy world. Trump, in that way, with the help of his aides and his doctors, has created this fiction about his health to hide the hard, cold truth that he is 79 and one of the oldest people to ever occupy the Oval Office.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
