Trump, 79, Complains He Was Reported Dead in Bonkers Rant
The president raged about the coverage of his health by the media.
President Donald Trump went on a tirade about the coverage of his health during a speech to Republican lawmakers, where he claimed it took him weeks to correct the record about not being dead.
The president, 79, traveled to the Kennedy Center on Tuesday to give remarks at the House GOP member retreat, where he went repeatedly off-script.
He raged about the coverage of his health after turning to his own recent medical exams.
“You know I’m the only president that went for cognitives,” Trump bragged. “I think every president and vice president should be forced to take cognitive exams, mental tests, like, uh, ‘Are they intelligent?’ Wouldn’t it be nice?”
President Donald Trump complained about coverage of his health and schedule while speaking during the House Republican Party member retreat at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2026.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
Moments later, he became flustered and complained that when he does medical exams, the coverage is “the worst.”
“If I don’t do a medical exam, they say, ‘Trump’s not doing an exam! There must be something wrong with him,’” Trump complained. “If I do the exam, they say, ‘Ah, why did he do this? Why did he do this part of an exam? He did too much. There’s something wrong with him.’”
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The president then went off about taking one day away from doing press conferences, which led to speculation that he had died.
Trump complained he took two hours off to play golf with his granddaughter, and the press could not find him. He went on to act out the phone calls he said that followed.
“‘Are you ok?’ Guys are calling me up,” Trump imitated holding a phone. “Some of the guys in this room. ‘Sir, are you ok?’ ‘Yeah, what’s the problem?’ ‘There’s a report, sir, that you’re no longer with us.’”
Trump claimed it took him a “couple of weeks to get that one straightened out.”
In early September, Trump responded to sweeping internet rumors that he had passed away, but reports that he was on his deathbed were not made by the news media.
That did not stop Trump on Tuesday from also complaining about The New York Times for its report last year on his aging in office and scaled-back schedule compared to his first term, which the president fiercely rejected.
“They did a story, ‘Donald Trump is slowing down. He only had lunch,’” Trump whined to the room of lawmakers.
The president raged that he was actually more upset with his people than The Times.
“It takes you a period of time to recover from these hits,” Trump complained. “It’s almost no matter what you do, but you have to keep a positive eye, but we have a fake press.”
Trump in 2024 was the oldest person ever elected president. Since he returned to office, questions have been raised about his health and his schedule.
The president posts on social media at all hours of the day but has appeared to nod off during public events.
Much of the speculation about the president’s health stems from a series of physical observations.
Trump went for an annual physical, which is typical in April 2025, but the appearance of repeatedly bruised hands and then swollen ankles has raised further questions.
While the White House attributed the bruising on his hand to constant hand shaking while taking aspirin and announced in July that his swollen ankles were the result of chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), which they noted is considered largely benign, they have remained cagey at times when addressing his health.
President Donald Trump is often spotted with bruises on his hands.
Chip Somodevilla/Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
When the president returned to Walter Reed Military Medical Center in October, roughly six months after his annual physical, the White House revealed he had undergone advanced imaging but did not share details on its focus, despite multiple inquiries.
It was the president, who soon after, claimed he had an MRI to a group of reporters, but he did not know the details on which part of his body was scanned.
Months later, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal released on January 1, Trump revealed he actually had a different type of scan: a CT, not an MRI.
Trump complained to the publication that it would have been better had he not had the advanced imaging because it “gave them a little ammunition.”
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