Trump's MRI dodges are getting 'weirder' after 2-month news blackout: analyst

Almost two months after Donald Trump visited Walter Reed Army Hospital for a presidential physical, with the White House later disclosing he underwent “advanced imaging,” questions have been raised over whether he underwent an MRI and, if so, why.

The president has talked openly about having an MRI, but has been cagey about what part of his body was imaged and why, which answered the overriding question, but deepened the mystery.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the mystery of the imaging was raised again after the president attacked Gov. Tim Walz with a demeaning slur, and the Minnesota Democrats fired back by demanding Trump “release the MRI results.”

For his part, Trump responded on Sunday by standing in the doorway of Air Force One and telling reporters, “If they want to release it, it’s okay,” without making a solid commitment to transparency.

According to MS NOW’s Steve Benen, the entire saga has grown “weirder” with every Trump remark on the subject rather than becoming clearer.

On Monday, Benen noted an Associated Press headline that stated, “Trump says he’ll release MRI results but doesn’t know what part of his body was scanned.”

Pointing out that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has also punted on answers about the test results for weeks, Benen claims the White House’s evasive answers are raising eyebrows as he fell back, once again on Sunday, by boasting about his cognitive prowess.

As the MS NOW analyst explained. “The president has long struggled to understand the purpose of cognitive exams, which are used to identify evidence of dementia, mental deterioration and neurodegenerative diseases. It’s entirely possible for a patient to do well on such a test and still need a head MRI.”

Admitting the mystery could be much ado about nothing, he added that MS NOW medical analyst Dr. Vin Gupta has already posited, “Even if you are leader of the free world, you don’t just get an MRI without a clear reason to do so. There’s no such thing as a ‘screening’ MRI.”

That led Benen to make the case that, “That Trump still has ‘no idea’ what the MRI was for doesn’t exactly resolve the underlying questions about what happened or why.”

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