Jonathan Reiner, the cardiologist who served as Vice President Dick Cheney’s physician and has become one of the most prominent medical voices scrutinizing presidential health disclosures, raised several pointed questions over the weekend about President Donald Trump’s latest physical, starting with why the president received a second coronary artery CT scan just six months after his last one.
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“We don’t typically scan patients 6 months later unless we are concerned about a finding on the initial scan,” Reiner wrote on X. “What prompted the repeat CT?”
That was just the first of seven questions Reiner posed about the exam conducted by White House physician Dr. Barbabella, whose overall assessment was that Trump is in good health.
Reiner also flagged a discrepancy in how the report described Trump’s ankle swelling, noting it stated the condition had “improved compared with last year” when Trump’s previous exam had recorded no ankle edema at all. He questioned why Trump is taking a dose of aspirin four times higher than what is recommended for cardiovascular protection, and asked about bruising on Trump’s left hand that the report did not address.
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He also noted that Trump has now undergone at least three MOCA cognitive screenings in recent years and asked why another was administered. The MOCA, or Montreal Cognitive Assessment, is a tool used to detect early signs of cognitive impairment.
Reiner further questioned whether the White House medical team had evaluated Trump’s “apparent daytime fatigue and sleepiness,” and pushed back on the report’s use of an AI tool to assess Trump’s “heart age” as equivalent to that of a 66-year-old, calling it “not a clinically utilized tool.”
Trump himself referred to the visit as a “semi-annual physical,” which prompted Reiner’s final question: why is the president now being examined twice a year rather than annually?
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I’m glad Dr. Barbabella’s overall assessment is that the president is well. A few questions.
1. Why did the president have another coronary artery CT? He was last scanned in Oct. We don’t typically scan patients 6 months later unless we are concerned about a finding on the…
— Jonathan Reiner (@JReinerMD) May 30, 2026
