47⬅ Donald Trump: Report Irregularities / Fawning

President Trump's May 2026 medical report contains many irregularities, organized here into familiar information-corrupting buckets that impede efforts to understand his health:

• MORE Omissions ... of multiple test results
• MORE Ignorings ... of multiple clinical problems
• MORE Alterations ... of normal test ranges
• MORE Decoy ... with irrelevant material
• MORE Ambiguities ... of dates and phrasing
• MORE Misdiagnoses ... and incomplete diagnoses
• SEE BELOW Fawning ... including previous reports

However, it must be granted that the presidential physician during Trump's second term has twice accomplished something that had not been previously done since January 2018: release in-depth preventive medical assessments of the president. After the January 2018 physical, all subsequent preventive medical assessments of Trump — which excludes his covid bout — were one-page summaries that left many key parameters unspecified.

Comment: The mere existence of these more detailed assessments gives confidence that the system is operating and suggests the president is receiving attentive and principled medical care, despite what the paper trail might indicate. And so, in several places, I do not accept the possibility that Trump has incompetent doctors.
 
Although the irregularities in the reports raise many questions — especially the changed normal ranges MORE — an outsider finds many obstacles to understanding their origin and significance. Too much of the relevant information is available only to insiders. Genuinely innocent reasons could have propelled some of the irregularities into the report, so full judgment must await access to the inside information.

Official medical reports contain statements that burnish Trump's ego and/or reputation. Certainly it is possible that the president insisted on these statements and the physician had to grit his teeth and accede. If so, the physician deserves our sympathy, if not pity.

• Height

  Trump's height is well documented as less than the 6'3'' reported in his May 2026 report (and all his presidential physicals), contradicting his claims (going back to 2016, at least) that he is 6'3'' MORE. Perhaps Trump's height was measured with his shoes on. Medically, that would be shoddy work.

  
  Jan. 20, 2017: Trump stands next to Barack Obama, who is 6'2'' tall. They are standing on the same surface and have identical postures against the background of parallel steps. This provides a perfect mug-shot opportunity to compare their heights, albeit in their shoes. Obama is slightly taller.

  Photo credits:

  • Left: Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images — https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/first-lady-melania-trump-president-donald-trump-former-news-photo/632213602
  • Middle: Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Imagess — https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trump-and-first-lady-melania-trump-wait-news-photo/632198748
  • Right: Rob Carr / Getty Imagess — https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trump-and-former-president-barack-obama-news-photo/632198736

• Ear

  The May 2026 report MORE said: "slight scarring of the right ear consistent with prior gunshot injury."

  The April 2025 report MORE said: "scaring [sic] of the right ear from a gunshot wound."

  The scar is imperceptible in photographs. MORE

• Golf victories

  The April 2025 report MORE referred to Trump's "frequent victories in golf events." Comment: It would have been medically informative to say how often Trump plays golf or how many holes he plays, as these factors help gauge cardiac and muscular reserve, but not that he "frequently" wins.