President Donald Trump, 79, really doesn’t want to be likened to Joe Biden, a senior White House official has claimed.
The president turns 80 on Sunday and is said to want to project strength and avoid comparisons to his predecessor, Reuters reports.
Biden’s health was repeatedly questioned during his term, which ended when he was 82. No one asked those questions more than Trump, who regularly called him “Sleepy Joe.”
Now in that same office, Trump has regularly appeared to doze off, raising questions about his own fitness, amid several other visible health concerns.
Trump appeared to rest his eyes during an NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden on Monday, which was already a PR disaster after he was booed as his motorcade approached the Manhattan venue, and again inside it when the president’s face appeared on the Jumbotron during the national anthem.
Still, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle claimed to Reuters that Trump is “the sharpest and most accessible president in American history.”
The president raised eyebrows in May when he took his third visit to Walter Reed Military Medical Center in thirteen months. He described it as a “six-month physical,” despite presidents usually only having them once a year.
That visit showed that his weight had increased by 14 pounds compared to his April last year visit, while his resting heart rate had shot up by 11 bpm.
There are also consistent bruises on the back of his hands and red rashes on the back of his neck. On top of that, Trump has often been seen wobbling when he walks.
The Daily Beast has long drawn attention to concerns about the commander-in-chief’s health, and now the nation and the rest of the media appear to be taking notice.
In May, CNN’s data guru, Harry Enten, pointed to figures suggesting that Americans are increasingly worried about his fitness for office. He is the oldest person to ever assume the presidency.
“The American people are having increasing concerns about the president’s physical health, and these are just the numbers,” he said.
“Trump’s physical health to be president is good enough. You go back to 2023, it was 64 percent. In 2025, 54 percent. Within the last month, look at this: down to just 44 percent of Americans who say that Trump’s physical health is good enough to be president. It has been on a steady decline.”
“The American people are viewing with their eyes, and what they’re viewing, they are not pleased with,” Enten added. “For the first time ever this year, less than 50 percent of Americans actually say that Trump’s physical health is good enough to be president.”
Meanwhile, a February Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 61 percent of Americans thought age had made him more erratic.
Trump’s appearance at Game 3 of the NBA Finals required additional security measures, forcing fans to line up from 4 p.m. to reach their seats.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
