Topline
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that President Donald Trump received “preventative” cardiovascular and abdominal MRIs, elaborating on the scans after the president said Sunday he did not know what parts of his body were scanned during the procedure, the results of which he claimed will be released.
Key Facts
Leavitt said advanced imaging was performed on the president to “identify any issues early,” adding the cardiovascular and abdominal imaging were “perfectly normal” and standard for Trump’s age of 79.
While speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday, as he flew back to Washington from Florida, Trump was asked about the results of the MRI test he received in October as part of his annual physical.
“If they want to release it, it’s okay with me to release it,” Trump said, claiming the results of the scan were “perfect.”
The president, however, said he had “no idea” what part of his body underwent the MRI scan, noting: “It was just an MRI…It wasn’t the brain because I took a cognitive test and I aced it, I got a perfect mark.”
The president also referred to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who has revamped questions about Trump’s health and publicly called for the release of the scans, as “incompetent.”
Trump, who had called the Minnesota governor “seriously retarded” in a social media post on Thanksgiving day, defended his use of the slur to attack Walz and said: “I think there’s something wrong with him.”
What Has Walz Said About Trump’s Health?
In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Walz was asked about his calls for Trump to release his MRI results. The Minnesota Gov. said: “Has anyone in the history of the world ever had an MRI assigned to them and have no idea what it was for, as he says?” Walz then added, “It’s clear the president’s fading physically. I think the mental capacity, again, ranting, you know, crazily at midnight on Thanksgiving about everything else, there are reasons for us to be concerned.” Walz then mocked Trump’s post about closing the airspace over Venezuela and said: “We have someone, at midnight, throwing around slurs that demonize our children. And at the time, he’s not solving any of the problems. So I am deeply concerned that he is incapable of doing the job.”