The President Is a Very Sick Man: Why Americans Have Never Trusted What the White House Says About Health

The most powerful man in the world cannot afford to show weakness. Or at least, he believes he cannot. He fears the signal it would send to the economy, to foreign adversaries, to the American people. He also fears being declared unfit for office. So presidents hide. They lie. They go on "fishing trips" that are actually secret cancer surgeries aboard luxury yachts.

Grover Cleveland had just begun his second term when he noticed a strange spot on the roof of his mouth. A bump, upper left. It did not go away. His personal physician diagnosed a malignant tumor and urgently recommended surgery.

Cleveland's reaction: does it have to be right now? The country had slid into a severe economic crisis – the "Panic of 1893." The president could not afford to spook Wall Street further. The public, he decided, would know nothing.

He told Americans he was going fishing. On June 30, 1893, he boarded the luxury yacht Oneida at a New York harbor. The vessel belonged to a friendly banker. Doctors had been secretly smuggled aboard at different docks. The salon had been emptied and disinfected. A heavy chair, strapped to the mast, sat in the middle of the room. The overweight president was strapped into it and sedated. As the yacht bobbed on the waves of the East River, five surgeons cut through Cleveland's mouth.

They removed five teeth. Nearly a third of his soft upper palate was lost. A significant portion of his left upper jaw came out. After exactly 90 minutes, the operation was miraculously successful. Cleveland could barely speak afterward. A Treasury official who visited him at his summer home wrote in his diary that the president was clearly unwell. "Apparently his mouth was filled with some kind of bandage."

A massive wound gaped in his palate. The left side of his face threatened to collapse. But a dental technician crafted a custom prosthesis from vulcanized hard rubber. Cleveland was restored. He returned to Washington in August to address Congress. Reporters described him as "well-tanned" and "in perfect health."

One journalist, however, had doubts. Elisha Jay Edwards of the Philadelphia Press tracked down Cleveland's dentist and published an exposé at the end of August. "The President is a very sick man," the headline read. No one believed him. The White House denied everything. Edwards was discredited in a smear campaign and lost his job. Twenty-four years later, a participating surgeon broke his silence. The public finally learned of the secret operation on the luxury yacht – now considered a spectacular example of how far American presidents will go to conceal a health crisis.

Woodrow Wilson managed to hide a stroke that left him partially paralyzed for 17 months. John F. Kennedy, who projected dynamism, suffered not only from a life-threatening chronic adrenal insufficiency but also from a severe degenerative spinal condition that required a back brace. He was regularly injected with amphetamines and steroids.

Now, Donald Trump is 80 years old. He recently underwent his third medical check-up in 13 months at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, fueling rumors about his health. The media discusses bruises on his hands, swollen legs, and alleged drowsiness. Above all, his mental fitness is debated.

Trump himself posted on Truth Social that his results were "extremely good." He claimed to have achieved a perfect score of 30 out of 30 on a cognitive test for the fourth consecutive time – evidence, he said, of "extreme intelligence." "Are the Dumbocrats really surprised?" he asked mockingly. His physician, Sean Barbabella, praised Trump's numbers as "excellent." An AI-assisted analysis estimated the president's heart age at 14 years younger, he added.

However, the Wall Street Journal noted that the White House memorandum omitted various test results related to cardiovascular disease. And what was included, one independent surgeon from Texas told the paper, was "almost too good to be true" for a man of Trump's age.

In hindsight, the same might be said of Joe Biden's medical reports. Doctors attested to the then-president's impeccable health before he had to withdraw his reelection bid due to obvious cognitive deficits. Shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer – apparently missed in earlier check-ups. Or perhaps not.

According to a tell-all book by CNN moderator Jake Tapper and Axios journalist Alex Thompson, Biden's mental exhaustion began as early as 2015, after his son died of a brain tumor. Once in office, a "politburo" of advisors and his wife Jill reportedly shielded the weakened president from much of the workload. Access to him was restricted. Yet many in the White House must have witnessed his physical decline. "But they all kept quiet," wrote one Washington correspondent. "Biden's gait looked like he might stumble at any moment, his daily schedule consisted of only a few appointments with generous breaks. But how do you report on that seriously?"

With Trump, the media has abandoned such restraint. "Are we allowed to declare Donald Trump sick?" asked the Süddeutsche Zeitung recently, calling psychologist John Gartner of Johns Hopkins University. Gartner argued that the current president is a "danger to the public." While other doctors refrain from remote diagnoses, Gartner considers silence "unethical." He attributes to Trump a toxic mix of extreme narcissism, antisocial behavior, aggressiveness, sadism, and paranoia – the same disorder psychoanalyst Erich Fromk used to define Adolf Hitler's psychology.

"The President is a very sick man," Elisha Jay Edwards wrote about Grover Cleveland. No one believed him. With Donald Trump, belief is not the issue. His opponents consider it certain that the president is severely disturbed. But wishful thinking may also be at play. Just as people wanted Biden to be fit for the job, some now wish for a heart condition that would end the nightmare of the Trump presidency – or hope for removal from office due to mental incapacity.

How healthy it is to entertain such thoughts is another matter entirely. The history of presidential health secrets suggests one thing is certain: the truth always comes out. But usually decades later. Long after the votes have been counted. And long after the presidency has ended.

Written by Sandy van Dongen