President Donald Trump’s swollen ankles were caught on camera as he touched down after a trip to Florida that included a surprise medical visit.
Trump, who turns 80 next month, returned to the White House on Sunday after spending the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort and his Doral Miami golf club.
On Saturday, Trump undertook what the White House press pool called a “scheduled dental appointment” at his local dentist in Florida. The visit was not on his public schedule, however, and fueled speculation over his health.
Trump was photographed with son Donald Jr. on the south lawn of the White House on Sunday, with the president’s thick ankles visible.
President Donald Trump and Donald Trump Jr. walk on the south lawn toward the White House in Washington, DC, on May 3, 2026. MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
The presidential socks were doing the most. Getty
After the unexpected stop to check on his dental health, cardiologist and CNN medical analyst Jonathan Reiner pointed out on X that the White House has a dental office on site, where former President Joe Biden had a root canal operation.
“There’s been such lack of candor about the health of the president that even a visit to the dentist raises questions,” Reiner stated, questioning why the president made the visit on a Saturday morning in Florida. He added, “Maybe he just likes this dentist.”
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle has repeatedly told the Daily Beast, “President Trump is the sharpest, most accessible, and energetic president in modern American history.
The president is overdue for his annual physical; his last one was on April 11, 2025, after which it was declared that he was in “excellent health.”
Yellow circles around President Donald Trump's ankles as he hosts the President of Poland Karol Nawrocki in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 3, 2025. The Daily Beast/Reuters
The Alex Jones Podcast shows a shot of Trump's ankles. screen grab
But in the past year, Trump’s physical ailments have been on public display. His continually swollen ankles are a common symptom of chronic venous insufficiency, which he was diagnosed with last July.
The super-sized presidential ankles were on full display in the Oval Office last week as Trump met with King Charles.
A photo composite of Donald Trump and his cankles with King Charles. Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
Trump told The Wall Street Journal in a January report that he briefly wore compression socks to help treat the ailment, but stopped after a while because he “didn’t like them.”
As well as his ankle issues, the president frequently slathers mismatched concealer on the back of his hands to cover up bruising. He has attributed it to defying doctors’ orders and taking 325 milligrams of aspirin daily, which is four times the dosage generally recommended by physicians.
It’s “good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart,” he told the Journal in January.
The Daily Beast has vigorously covered the president’s various ailments, which also include his bouts of confusion, his public sleeping fits, his slurred speech, and his surprise neck rash.
Trump’s cognitive skills have also been called into question with increasingly erratic Truth Social posting sprees in the early hours.
Analysis by the Daily Beast revealed that Trump was such a frequent poster last month there were only five days in April when he could have had a full night’s sleep.
Last month, he published 565 Truth Social posts, an average of around 18 a day, regularly posting after midnight.