U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters during travel to Washington, D.C., from Palm Beach International Airport, Florida, U.S., November 30, 2025.
Anna Rose Layden | Reuters
The White House on Monday released new details about President Donald Trump’s October MRI, offering a more comprehensive explanation for the procedure after questions about why the 79-year-old underwent advanced imaging at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt read aloud from a summary during the daily press briefing, saying that the MRI was part of Trump’s “comprehensive executive physical” and was ordered because men in his age group “benefit from a thorough evaluation of cardiovascular and abdominal health.”
The White House described the imaging as routine and preventative, meant to identify potential issues early and confirm overall function. According to Trump’s physician, Dr. Sean Barbabella, the cardiovascular imaging showed no signs of arterial narrowing, impaired blood flow, or abnormalities in the heart or major vessels.
He found that the heart chambers were normal in size, the vessel walls appeared smooth and healthy, and there was no indication of inflammation or clotting. Dr. Barbabella also reported that all major organs appeared healthy and well-perfused, with no acute or chronic concerns detected.
Barbabella described the president’s cardiovascular system as being in “excellent health.”
Despite Leavitt’s detailing of the MRI and subsequent release of the memo summarizing the MRI results from Dr. Barbabella, the White House stopped short of releasing images of the tests.
Until Monday, the White House only described the October Walter Reed visit as a “follow-up evaluation” that included “advanced imaging,” offering no explanation for why the procedure was done.
The release came as scrutiny of the MRI intensified over the weekend after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Democratic nominee for vice president alongside Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, called on Trump to release the results, reacting to a Thanksgiving Truth Social post in which Trump attacked Walz, the state’s Somali community and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
“Has anyone in the history of the world ever had an MRI assigned to them and have no idea what it was for, as he says,” Walz later said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
