4 Troubling Reasons We Suspect Donald Trump's Health Is In Decline

Though the 2024 presidential elections are still some months away as of this writing, it seems all but certain to be a rerun of the 2020 race. President Joe Biden is bidding for a second term, and unless Donald Trump's nightmares come true, the former commander-in-chief seems poised to get the Republican nomination once again. Trump hopes to sway voters with his get-tough policies; For starters, he promises to ban undocumented immigrants, cut off aid to Ukraine, and criminalize gender-affirming care for minors. 

Trump is also determined to prove Biden is too old and frail to be an effective leader. Yet many political commentators are raising concerns that Trump may not be up for the job, either. At 77 (he'll turn 78 in 2024), the controversial politician is no spring chicken. Despite Trump's assurances that he's at the top of his game physically and mentally, several signs contradict those claims. 

And no, we're not talking about those weird red marks that were recently spotted on his right hand — sources clarified to TMZ that it was just blood from a paper cut. However, these are just a few indications that Trump has health issues far more serious than a mere nick on the finger.

In January 2024, Donald Trump proudly told voters, "I feel my mind is stronger than it was 25 years ago" (via CNN), but some of his recent public appearances called that claim into question. During a rally that very same month in New Hampshire, he declared several times that "Nikki Haley," not Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, refused offers of extra security at the Capitol Building during the insurrection on January 6, 2021. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, wasn't even in Washington at the time (and for the record, the Speaker doesn't control security at the Capitol).

Trump has made numerous other verbal missteps of late. On January 20, he referred to Congressman William Timmons as "Willian" and Congressman Russell Fry as "Fly." He also said "foreign dignity" instead of "dignitary." Trump's media interviews haven't fared much better either. While speaking to Fox News, the former president claimed, "[The price of] gas, it's very high. Coming down because they're throwing everything they possibly can to get it— but right after the election, if that ever happened. But you just better hope to God it doesn't happen where he gets in because [Biden is] destroying this country."

Haley hopes to use this to her advantage to get on the Republican ticket. As she pointed out on "Face the Nation" (via X, formerly known as Twitter), "Don't be surprised if you have someone who's 80 in office, their mental stability is going to continue to decline. That's just human nature."

Donald Trump tries to avoid looking weak under any circumstances. Even after he was hospitalized for three days with COVID-19, requiring oxygen and strong experimental medications, Trump tweeted, "Don't be afraid of Covid. Don't let it dominate your life. [...] I feel better than I did 20 years ago!" So it was unusual to see the one-time POTUS showing a sign of frailty on his campaign stop in Iowa in January 2024. Washington Examiner reporter Samantha-Jo Roth posted a video on X showing Trump walking through a hotel lobby, seeming to drag his right leg slightly. 

That semi-limp showed up again in another clip shared by his former senior advisor Jason Miller. The odd gait didn't go unnoticed by followers. Some attributed it to the brutally cold Iowa weather, but one commenter noted, "My grandfather used to walk/wander/shuffle like this about a year before he died. He was suffering from COPD, congestive heart failure, & extreme neuropathy in feet from diabetes."

They might be right. More than 60% of adults over age 80 experience some form of balance or gait disorder, according to research published by the National Institutes of Health. Joint disorders such as arthritis can cause shuffling, but so can neurological disorders like Parkinson's disease. Dementia can also lead to changes in walking speed or style. Whatever the cause, gait disorders increase the chances of a fall, which can be extremely dangerous for someone Trump's age.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail in Iowa, Donald Trump tried to one-up Barack Obama in a strange way. Bragging about the results of a recent medical exam, the former president claimed that his physician had called him healthier than the much younger Obama. He added, "[Dr. Ronny Jackson] said, 'You're the healthiest guy.' He said, 'If he didn't eat junk food, he'd live to 200 years old.' That's my kind of a doctor."

Another doctor begs to differ. In an article he wrote for the Beverly Hills Institute for Cardiology and Preventive Medicine, cardiologist Arash Bereliani, M.D., pointed out a red flag in the results of Trump's cardiac CT test. The former POTUS had a cardiac calcium score of 133, indicating a significant amount of fatty plaque in his cardiac arteries. When plaque ruptures, it can block the flow of blood to the artery, causing a heart attack. 

"[I]t is my opinion that President Trump has mild heart disease," asserted Bereliani. "Even though his overall health is average, his overall risk for a cardiac event (heart attack) within the next 3-5 years is relatively high." Trump's excess belly fat could also raise the level of inflammation in his coronary arteries, added the doctor: "I have a hard time calling a borderline obese man with significant plaque build up in the heart arteries with high cholesterol and possible inflammation [is] someone in 'excellent shape'."

Donald Trump has frequently claimed to be a lifetime teetotaler, turned off liquor by his alcoholic older brother, Fred Trump Jr. But Trump's alternate choice of drink could be almost as harmful to his health. A 2017 report by The New York Times revealed that the then-president drank as many as 12 Diet Cokes daily, and even had a special call button installed at his desk to summon an assistant to fetch a can. 

The artificial sweeteners in diet drinks have been linked to potential health problems. A study in the journal Stroke found that older persons who drank diet sodas regularly were three times more likely to suffer a stroke or develop Alzheimer's disease than people who didn't. That doesn't necessarily mean that they directly cause brain injury, but it's still worth noting. More concerning is the evidence linking diet soda to obesity. The NIH cites studies showing that overweight adults who consume diet drinks are more likely to take in more calories from solid food than normal-weight persons. 

Those excess calories can translate to more weight gain and the health issues associated with it, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and liver failure. Obviously, Trump isn't going to reach that 200-year longevity prediction. But if he hopes to stay healthy enough to occupy the White House for four more years, he might want to swap out some of those Diet Cokes for a few glasses of good old H2O.