Trump's MRI results were released on Dec. 1, 2025, after Trump told the media the day prior that he would release the documents that he said found him in "perfect" health. (Francis Chung/Getty Images)
The White House railed against left-leaning media outlets’ recent focus on Trump’s health as "garbage narratives," accusing them of having previously downplayed "Joe Biden’s severe mental health decline" while he was in the Oval Office.
"No one believes the failing legacy media’s disingenuous obsession about President Trump’s health because we all just watched them actively cover up Joe Biden’s severe mental health decline for the past four years," White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital on Monday.
"The facts are clear: President Trump has shared several comprehensive medical updates, in the effort of total transparency, all of which show he is in excellent health. The fake news media pushing garbage narratives about President Trump’s energy levels while they get to publicly question him nearly every single day is why Americans’ trust in the media just hit a new all-time low."
Fox News Digital took a look back at the mainstream media's coverage of Biden's health before dropping out of the 2024 presidential race at the 11th hour amid mounting concerns over his mental acuity, and the media's recent focus on Trump's health and evaluations.
Trump has railed against the media for their focus on his health that he said is cast in a negative light despite the administration releasing details to the public on Trump's check-ups. Trump, for example, slammed The New York Times in November for publishing a piece focused on him serving in the Oval Office at 79 years old while facing the "realities of aging." Trump described the article as a "hit piece" that follows years of the media reportedly publishing "purposely negative" articles.
Following reporters questioning White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about details surrounding the MRI in November, Trump told the media on Sunday evening when pressed about the scan that he would release the MRI results to the public amid media scrutiny.
The White House released Trump's MRI results on Monday when Leavitt read the report to the media that found Trump was in normal and good health.
"The purpose of this imaging is preventative to identify any issues early, confirm overall health, and ensure the president maintains long-term vitality and function," Leavitt said. "… Overall, his cardiovascular system shows excellent health."
TRUMP REVEALS HE HAD 'PERFECT' MRI DURING RECENT WALTER REED PHYSICAL
The Washington Post editorial board wrote that Congress should undertake a thorough investigation into the nature of former President Biden's health decline as president. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Care Can't Wait Action)
The Trump administration, as well as conservative critics and liberal journalists, have repeatedly slammed the reported cover-up of Biden's declining health after a wave of political memoirs recounting the 2024 and Biden presidency, including alleging that Biden staffers were aware of and fretted about the president's mental decline, but publicly promoted him as physically and mentally fit to serve as president.
Biden's mental acuity had been under conservatives' microscope since before the 2020 election. Concerns among the mainstream media, however, did not heighten until February 2024 when special counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents as vice president, announced he would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, calling Biden "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
Conservatives railed that the report proved Biden's mental acuity was, in fact, on a steady decline, pointing to the president's increasingly mumbled public remarks, a high-profile fall while boarding Air Force One in 2021 and another fall while on a bike ride in Delaware in 2022.
Biden has denied that he suffered a cognitive decline while in the White House, including during a May interview on "The View," when he said new books detailing an alleged mental decline were "wrong."
The media did grill then-White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in June 2023 over Biden's repeated public falls, including when he fell during the Air Force Academy's graduation ceremony in Colorado and stumbling on a flight of steps in Japan that year, but it wasn't until 2024 that the White House press corps repeatedly pressed the administration on the president's health.
TRUMP DECLARED IN 'EXCELLENT OVERALL HEALTH' BY DOCTOR AFTER WALTER REED VISIT
The final year of Biden's presidency included a handful of public gaffes and missteps, including former President Barack Obama seen taking Biden’s wrist to seemingly lead him offstage at a fundraiser in Los Angeles in June of 2024 and another viral video showing the then-president standing relatively motionless during a Juneteenth concert event at the White House.
The Biden White House brushed off concern surrounding the videos by describing the footage as "cheap fakes," which the administration described as real videos that are cropped or edited in an allegedly deceptive manner.
Concern over Biden's mental acuity hit a fever pitch in June 2024 after he took the debate stage to face off against Trump in the election cycle. Biden's debate performance was seen as a failure, with traditional allies soon joining conservatives in their concern over the president's health in the context of encouraging Biden to pass the mantle to a younger generation of U.S. leaders.
"Is anyone in the White House hiding information about the president’s health or his ability to do the job day to day?" a journalist asked Jean-Pierre during the first press briefing after the disastrous debate.
Another said: "You’ve said a couple of times now that the White House has provided thorough medical records for the president. The White House released a six-page summary back in February. I don’t think that was a full accounting, necessarily. And Dr. O’Connor, in that memo, described the president as quote, "a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency."
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters after speaking to troops via video from his Mar-a-Lago estate on Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The lack of media coverage over Biden's health was underscored during the White House Correspondents' Dinner in April when an Axios reporter who authored a book on Biden's health decline ripped the Biden administration and his media colleagues for a "cover-up."
"President Biden’s decline and its cover-up by the people around him is a reminder that every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception," Axios reporter and co-author of "Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," Alex Thompson said during the dinner.
"But being truth tellers also means telling the truth about ourselves. We, myself included, missed a lot of this story. And some people trust us less because of it. We bear some responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows," he added.
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Fox News Digital reached out to Biden's office for any comment and update on his health and recent media focus on Trump's health but did not immediately receive a reply.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dems-media-credibility-shambles-press-fixates-trump-mri-after-years-downplaying-biden-health-issues