Concerns about President Donald Trump’s physical fitness returned to the political spotlight in early August following his travel to the West Coast on Aug. 4, 2026, when California Gov. Gavin Newsom publicly ridiculed the 80-year-old commander-in-chief as lethargic and unable to engage with reporters.
Newsom’s mockery on Aug. 5 came months after a Washington State University medical professor asserted that the president likely experienced a cerebrovascular event in 2025, an allegation the White House has categorically dismissed.
Governor Mocks Tarmac Performance
The California Democrat’s press office posted a 14-second video clip on X the morning of Aug. 5, showing the president walking away from journalists on an airfield. The visit was “a total snoozer,” Newsom’s office wrote, adding that Trump exhibited “Very low energy. No speech. He could barely take a question on the tarmac.”
In the footage, one journalist mentioned Ohio Rep. Max Miller, a MAGA ally facing pressure to resign over allegations from his ex-wife involving domestic violence and child abuse. After the reporter spoke Miller’s name, the president turned briefly, offered a shrug, expressed hope the congressman would remain and resolve the matter, then departed.
Trump had flown west to headline a Republican National Committee fundraising event at his Rancho Palos Verdes golf club. He then traveled to Nevada, where he spoke about the administration’s tax relief initiatives at the Red Rock Casino Resort & Spa during a rally.
Physician Argues Video Evidence Points to Stroke
Dr. Bruce Davidson, who holds board certification in internal medicine and pulmonary disease and teaches at Washington State University’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, claimed in January that publicly available footage points to a stroke affecting the left hemisphere, most likely sometime in 2025.
Though he has never personally examined the president, the professor based his conclusion on video analysis and published health information. Among the indicators he cited were an unsteady walk, slurred verbal communication that subsequently got better, weakness on his right side and periods when he appeared excessively drowsy during the day.
Davidson also noted Trump’s disclosed 325 mg daily aspirin dose, explaining that physicians typically prescribe such a high-dose treatment plan to ward off a second stroke, not as an initial preventive strategy. He presented his analysis on “The Court of History” and “The Daily Beast Podcast,” and in an opinion piece.
The president’s personal physicians have not verified any such incident, and the White House has flatly rejected the stroke theory.
Threats and Safety Lapses Mark Journey
Security incidents shadowed the trip. Prior to the president’s arrival at the Southern California golf course, authorities arrested an armed individual who had been seen walking on the Rancho Palos Verdes grounds with a 16-round magazine and extra bullets, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported.
In a separate breach of protocol, Marine One departed the White House on Aug. 4, as planes from commercial airlines kept flying in and out of a neighboring airport, a situation that violates normal safety procedures. The White House and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) both said Trump was never in danger.
White House Fires Back at Critics
Fitness questions have dogged the president before. Observers have consistently raised concerns about his persistently bruised hands, puffy ankles, instances of nodding off in public and sporadic verbal mistakes, yet the administration has consistently insisted he is in good health.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle called the governor the most incompetent and perhaps least intelligent state leader in America, contending that Trump’s mental acuity, vigor and willingness to engage the press contrast sharply with the prior administration. He charged that Democrats concealed former President Joe Biden’s mental and physical decline while now targeting Trump.
No one with direct access to the president has verified Davidson’s claims. His diagnosis, rendered remotely using video clips and a publicly disclosed medication, carries obvious limitations, and no member of Trump’s medical team has corroborated it.
Yet the intersection of a medical academic’s stroke hypothesis and a Democratic governor’s viral attack has pushed presidential fitness back into the center of national debate. One narrative portrays a leader diminished by age and possible illness; the opposing view depicts a vigorous executive whose adversaries are recycling tactics once deployed to shield a Democratic incumbent. What no one disputes is that questions surrounding the wellbeing of the nation’s oldest serving chief executive have emerged as an unavoidable theme throughout his second White House tenure — amplified by a terse tarmac encounter and an unconfirmed medical hypothesis.
