Three years ago, a national Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll asked Americans whether Donald Trump was healthy enough to serve effectively as president. At the time, concerns about the Republican’s physical well-being were quite limited, and only 28% of the public didn’t think Trump was healthy enough to hold the nation’s highest office.
Earlier this month, the same poll asked the same question and found that the number of Americans with concerns about Trump’s health had nearly doubled. Now, 55% of the public said the incumbent president is not in good enough physical health to serve effectively.
There’s no great mystery behind the shift. In recent months, Americans have seen images of significant bruising on the president’s hands, footage of the president engaged in exceedingly long blinks during official meetings, and unfortunate incidents that sparked a public conversation over Trump’s mental fitness and stability.
And then, of course, there’s the frequency of Trump’s medical appointments.
The president had an annual physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in mid-April last year. In early October, he went back for a “semiannual physical.” In early January, Trump had what was described as a brief dentist appointment in Florida. Earlier this month, he had another dentist appointment. This week, ahead of his 80th birthday, the oldest American president ever elected returned to Walter Reed for his third “annual” physical in 13 months.
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After the appointment, Trump told the public he had received a clean bill of health, though no details were immediately available. Given his unfortunate track record, the president hasn’t exactly earned the benefit of the doubt. (Last fall, Trump and the White House said the president received an MRI, then they refused to say why or what part of his body was scanned. In January, the president changed his story and said it was a CT scan.)
Amid public questions and media scrutiny, Team Trump pushed back in a way that was both predictable and counterproductive. The New Republic summarized:
White House staffers are losing their minds over media coverage pointing out that the president often falls asleep on camera.
The Trump administration’s Rapid Response 47 X account spent much of Tuesday attacking CNN with photos and short videos of the network’s hosts blinking or looking down, facetiously claiming that they were sleeping or showing signs of decline.
The pushback was unpersuasive, especially given the length of Trump’s “blinks,” but the social media barrage hinted at an underlying point: These guys sure do seem defensive when the focus shifts to the president’s age and fitness for office.
Indeed, let’s not forget that The New York Times reported in November on Trump holding fewer public events, engaging in less travel and keeping a shorter schedule than he used to, which led to a furious presidential tantrum that concluded with the Republican saying the reporter who wrote the article “is ugly, both inside and out.”
As the latest polling makes clear, the responses aren’t quieting the underlying questions, which appear likely to linger.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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