Donald Trump suffered a stroke months ago and didn’t disclose it to the public, a leading medical expert says.
Professor Bruce Davidson of Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd School of Medicine made explosive assertions about the 79-year-old president’s health while laying out “an array of supporting evidence,” which The Daily Beast has reported over the past year.
“I think his stroke happened on the left side of the brain, and the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body,” Davidson told biographer Sidney Blumenthal and Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz on their podcast, historical court.
“I believe the stroke occurred 6 months or more ago, early in 2025,” he continued. “There’s video of him shuffling his feet, which is not something we’ve seen before when he’s striding around the golf course. We’ve seen him put his right hand over his left hand. In early 2025, he had a garbled run, which he hadn’t done before, and he’s improved on it recently.”
White House claims Donald Trump’s bruises are from him
Davidson also noted what he described as “marked episodes of excessive daytime sleepiness,” medically known as narcolepsy, which he said is common among stroke patients. Trump now regularly naps during public appearances such as White House events.
He further said that despite being right-handed, Trump carefully walked down the steps of Air Force One while grabbing the railing with his left hand, which was “consistent with a left-brain stroke.”
The 79-year-old insisted he was simply resting his eyes and did not fall asleep during the important event. /Andrew Caballero Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
Davidson did not specify what kind of stroke he thought the president might have suffered, but said that if he was correct, “it appears he has made a significant recovery.”
Speculation has circulated for months about the mental and physical decline of Trump, who will become the oldest president in U.S. history.
The president often appears in public with large, visible bruises on his hands, which he desperately uses makeup to cover up.
Trump also took steps to hide his swollen ankles, a symptom of chronic venous insufficiency, a condition the White House acknowledged in July 2024 that the president suffered from.
Donald Trump suffers from a medical condition that causes swelling in his calves. /Daily Beast/Getty Images Illustrations
Trump’s face lolled to one side as he appeared at an event marking the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, sparking further concern. Multiple social media users speculated at the time that the phenomenon could be a sign of a stroke, but a diagnosis has not been confirmed.
In a candid interview with The Wall Street Journal published this month, Trump acknowledged a number of health issues and treatments, including briefly wearing compression stockings to help control swelling in his legs.
He also shockingly admitted that he took more aspirin than his doctor recommended as a “cardiac prevention” dose. Trump and the White House have repeatedly blamed the 79-year-old’s unsightly bruises on his hands on his daily aspirin intake and his frequent handshakes.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Davidson suggested that Trump’s erratic and aggressive governing style during his second term may also be consistent with behavioral changes after the stroke.
“This is a very serious, concerning, life-threatening, disturbing, horrific incident, and people are reacting in a variety of ways,” Davidson said. “Some people react with humility and gratitude. Others become ecstatic – ‘I was on the precipice of death and now I’m back.'” Some people think, ‘That was my chance to die and I didn’t – so now I’m going to do everything I want to do because the next one could be fatal.’ ‘”
In response, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt told The Daily Beast: “As the President’s physician, Dr. Sean Barbera, has made clear time and time again—and as the American people see firsthand every day—President Trump’s overall health remains excellent.”
“President Trump’s relentless work ethic, unparalleled energy and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we have seen over the past four years, when a failed legacy media deliberately concealed Joe Biden’s severe mental and physical decline from the American people,” she continued. “Now pushing these false and desperate narratives about President Trump is why Americans’ trust in the media is at an all-time low.”
