Doctors Raise the Alarm: Trump’s Secret MRI “Makes No Sense Unless Something’s Wrong
Doctors Raise the Alarm: Trump’s Secret MRI “Makes No Sense Unless Something’s Wrong - The Newz Square
A leading physician is challenging the White House’s puzzling explanation for President Donald Trump’s latest MRI, calling the “preventative” claim misleading and medically unfounded.
Dr. Jeffrey A. Linder, chief of general internal medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, told The New York Times that advanced imaging has never been standard in a presidential physical—despite what the White House asserted on Monday.
“There is nothing standard about an executive physical,” Linder said. “No medical specialty recommends imaging for someone with no symptoms.”
He added that blanket testing can do more harm than good. “There’s a reason we don’t test everybody for everything,” Linder said, warning that unnecessary scans often lead to unnecessary treatments.
He added, “There are real harms.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that Trump, 79, 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 at 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.
He added, “There are real harms.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that Trump, 79, 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 at 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.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who served as the late former Vice President Dick Cheney’s cardiologist for over 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.”
