Credibility Crisis: Media scrutinized Trump's health, fitness in first term before turning blind eye on Biden

Fox News

4 hours ago

The cover-up of Joe Biden's cognitive decline is one of the biggest political scandals in recent history, erupting just over a year ago following his disastrous debate performance on June 27, 2024.
Questions mostly among conservative critics about Biden's mental acuity began as early as 2019 when he ran in the Democratic presidential primary, but it wasn't until his ill-fated debate against Donald Trump last year that his decline became undeniable. And in recent weeks, between revelations from tell-all books, the release of the Hur tapes and his Stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis, the scandal has only grown in scale.
Yet during Trump's first term in office, the legacy media did not hesitate to opine on the president's health and fitness for office.
The speculation about Trump's mental fitness began even before he was sworn into office. In November 2016, just days after Trump shocked the world with his election victory, The Atlantic's David Frum tweeted, "Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. Article 4. We're all going to be talking a lot more about it in the months ahead."
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat did just that in May 2017, penning a piece titled, "The 25th Amendment Solution for Removing Trump."
CNN's Brian Stelter was an early media pioneer in questioning Trump's fitness. Following the violence in Charlottesville in August 2017, he claimed to viewers that chatter about the president's mental acuity filled newsrooms.
"President Trump's actions and inactions in the wake of Charlottesville are provoking some uncomfortable conversations, mostly off the air, if we're being honest," Stelter began a monologue. "In discussions among friends and family and debates on social media, people are questioning the president's fitness, but these conversations are happening in newsrooms and TV studios as well… Questions like these: Is the president of the United States a racist? Is he suffering from some kind of illness? Is he fit for office? And if he's unfit, then what?"
Then-Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson similarly declared, "It's time to talk about Trump's mental health."
"I have spoken with people who have known Trump for decades and who say he has changed. He exhibits less self-awareness, these longtime acquaintances say, and less capacity for sustained focus. Indeed, it is instructive to compare television interviews of Trump recorded years ago with those conducted now. To this layman's eyes and ears, there seems to have been deterioration," Robinson wrote.
Around the same time, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell theorized that Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner moved their family to Washington, D.C., after their father's inauguration because they were "worried about the old man."
"The kids have been watching, especially in recent years, a decline in Donald Trump's executive function," O'Donnell told his liberal viewers. "What neurologists call executive function includes basic mental processes like attention control, cognitive inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility. A decline in executive function is the beginning of the process that eventually leads you to take the car keys away from Dad."
"Having personally watched Donald Trump become increasingly incoherent over the last several years, my first assumption was the kids were going to Washington because they knew Dad is utterly incoherent much of the time, and forgetful, and inattentive."
In November 2017, The Daily Beast was confident in diagnosing Trump with "narcissism" and "sociopathy," admitting its willingness to disregard the famed Goldwater Rule, the principle for psychiatrists to avoid diagnosing others without a proper examination and consent, writing that psychological experts told the outlet, "Trump's years of media output—books, television appearances, tweets, and more—made his case one that is jarringly different, and one in which the Goldwater Rule doesn't apply."
USA Today published an op-ed in May 2017 penned by psychologist John Gartner, who diagnosed Trump with "malignant narcissism," writing, "If you take President Trump's words literally, you have no choice but to conclude that he is psychotic."
"Some say it is unethical to dare to diagnose the president, but hundreds of mental health professionals have come together to found Duty to Warn," Gartner wrote, promoting his group. "We believe that just as we are ethically and legally obligated to break confidentiality to warn a potential victim of violence, our duty to warn the public trumps all other considerations."
"More than 53,000 people have signed our petition, aimed at mental health professionals, stating Trump should be removed under the 25th Amendment because he is too mentally ill to competently serve," Gartner continued.
Time Magazine also posed the question, "Should Doctors Speculate About the President's Mental Health?"
"Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough urged Trump's cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment in November 2017 over his "erratic behavior" as the president engaged in a tit-for-tat with North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un.
"If this is not what the 25th Amendment was drafted for- I would like the cabinet members serving America, not the president, serving America - You serve America and you know it!" Scarborough shouted. "You don't represent him! You represent 320 million people, whose lives are literally in your hands!… The people close to him during the campaign told me had early stages of dementia."
"Now, listen, you can get mad at me if you want to, but it is OK to say. When are we supposed to say this, after the first nuclear missile goes?" Scarborough continued, before calling Trump a "mentally unstable president."
CNN's Jake Tapper jumped on the bandwagon, sounding the alarm over Trump's tweet taunting the dictator, saying his "nuclear button" is "bigger."
"None of this is normal, none of this acceptable, none of this, frankly, stable behavior," Tapper said in January 2018.
Days later, then-White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson was peppered with questions by reporters following Trump's physical exam, many of them probing the president's cognitive ability.
"Can you assess the president's mental fitness for office?" NBC News correspondent Hallie Jackson asked.
"Are you ruling out early on-set Alzheimer's? Are you looking at dementia-like symptoms?" then-ABC News correspondent Cecilia Vega pressed Jackson.
"Is there anything you're keeping from us for privacy reasons?" then-CNN correspondent Jim Acosta asked.
Following that briefing, CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta openly declared that Trump had "heart disease" based on Trump's high coronary calcium score from data released by Jackson, even though Trump's own physician never made such a diagnosis.
"The president has heart disease. Those numbers qualify him for having heart disease, and he clearly needs a plan to try to prevent some sort of heart problem down the road," Gupta confidently told CNN viewers.
Even before Trump's 2018 physical, Politico panned the White House for not giving him a cognitive exam, running the headline, "Is Trump mentally fit? Don't count on his physical to tell you."
"If President Donald Trump were any other 71-year-old — covered by Medicare and having his annual wellness visit — he'd be checked on his cognitive functions and possible safety risks. But when the president goes for his physical exam Friday, the White House said his mental fitness won't be tested. And there's no guarantee that the public would find out the results of cognitive tests if Trump were to take them," Politico wrote.
In January 2018, the media hyped allegations about Trump's mental acuity from Michael Wolff's book "Fire and Fury," which alleged White House staffers spoke with each other about the president's fitness to serve. It was at that time that Trump famously referred to himself as a "very stable genius" while combating the claims.
"The tip toeing is over. The whispers are turning into shouts. President Trump's fitness for office is now the top story in the country," Stelter told "Reliable Sources" viewers. "Reporters and some lawmakers are openly talking about the president's mental stability, his health, his competency."
"Many Americans are worried. And journalists need to cover that," Stelter urged his media colleagues.
"Does it seem likely in any way that members of the GOP will take this seriously, will want to take a look at the president's mental fitness?" MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle asked.
The Washington Post feasted on the Wolff news cycle with the headline, "The White House struggles to silence talk of Trump's mental fitness." CNN's website ran with "Trump defends his sanity amid questions about his mental state." CBS News similarly went with, "Trump defends mental fitness in wake of questions raised in new book."
Frum of The Atlantic declared in April 2018 that Trump was "unfit to command" and linked his mental instability to national security.
"This president is not in command of himself," Frum wrote, later adding, "The person nominally in charge is in no psychic state for his office. His condition is deteriorating—and with that personal deterioration, there also deteriorates America's security and standing in the world."
In September 2018, on the same day The New York Times published the infamous anonymous op-ed where the author declared they were "part of the resistance inside the Trump administration" (it was later revealed to be mid-level DHS staffer Miles Taylor), NPR published a report, "What You Need To Know About The 25th Amendment," citing "Another surreal twist in the midst of another frenetic week," prompting questions about the law.
Later that month, The New York Times published a bombshell story alleging then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein floated secretly recording Trump and discussed the 25th Amendment with others in the administration, something Rosenstein denied at the time.
In February 2019, "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley of CBS News discussed what had allegedly transpired with the ousted Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who said he had such discussions with Rosenstein.
"As you're sitting in this meeting at the Justice Department talking about removing the president of the United States, you were thinking what?" Pelley asked.
"How did I get here, confronting these confounding legal issues of such immense importance, not just to the FBI but to the entire country. It was... It was disorienting," McCabe responded.
In November 2019, the media erupted over Trump's unscheduled visit to Walter Reed Medical Center as the White House was obscure with its public statements. It was later revealed to have been for a routine colonoscopy.
"Trump's weekend hospital visit draws a skeptical reaction," wrote The Associated Press.
Politico at the time declared that, "Yes, It's OK to Speculate on the President's Health."
"Given the record of this White House, and the long history of presidential medical cover-ups, it's almost a responsibility," then-Politico writer Jack Shafer wrote. "You don't have to think that Trump was lying about his Saturday Walter Reed visit to insist that his health… should be a foundational issue in the 2020 campaign. Getting honest answers out of a politician about his or her health begins with asking the right questions. The right question to ask Trump is this: 'What explains your unusual visit to Walter Reed?'"
The media also went wild speculating over Trump's health in June 2020 following his appearance at West Point, where he went viral for cautiously walking down a ramp and drinking a glass of water with both hands as he was speaking.
New York Times star reporter Maggie Haberman authored the story, "Trump's Halting Walk Down Ramp Raises New Health Questions," telling readers, "President Trump faced new questions about his health on Sunday, after videos emerged of him gingerly walking down a ramp at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and having trouble bringing a glass of water to his mouth during a speech there."
Haberman even cast doubt on Trump's claim that the ramp was "steep" and "very slippery," writing he "offered a description that did not match the visuals" and there "was no evidence that the ramp was slippery, and the skies were clear during the ceremony."
"The president has frequently tried to raise questions about the health and mental fitness of his rivals, while growing indignant when his own is questioned," Haberman wrote. "Most recently, he and his allies have questioned the mental acuity of the presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is 77."
The Washington Post was equally skeptical of Trump with its headline, "Trump tries to explain his slow and unsteady walk down a ramp at West Point."
"President Trump late Saturday tried to explain his slow and unsteady walk down a ramp at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, which had generated concern and mockery on social media, by claiming the walkway was 'very slippery' and that he was worried about falling," wrote Philip Rucker, one of The Post's top political journalists at the time. "Elements of Trump's explanation strained credulity. Trump's claim that the ramp had been 'very slippery' was inconsistent with the weather, which on Saturday in West Point, N.Y., was sunny and clear-skied. The grass plain on which the commencement took place was dry."
A separate Post report juxtaposed concerns about Trump's health with Biden's with the headline, "As Trump casts Biden as 'sleepy Joe,' his critics raise questions about his own fitness."
"For Trump, who has tried to cast his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, as 'sleepy' and mentally absent, the attacks over his own wellness appeared to hit close to home," The Post wrote.
Both The Times and The Post elevated mockery of Trump by liberal late-night hosts.
CNN and MSNBC went wall-to-wall with coverage of Trump's cautious walk down the ramp.
"What's the matter with Donald Trump?" MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace asked a panelist with a slight grin.
"Americans have every reason to question his health. Walking down a ramp, holding a rail, probably no issue. Now you know how it feels, don't you? What goes around, comes around," then-CNN anchor Don Lemon taunted Trump.
Tapper took a swipe at Trump for "spending about 14 minutes talking about West Point and defending his wobbly walk down that ramp," while recapping the president's remarks from a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
As Trump was being treated for COVID at Walter Reed Medical Center in October 2020, CBS News' Margaret Brennan pressed then-National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien on invoking the 25th Amendment during an exchange on "Face The Nation."
"Have you and the team discussed a scenario in which at some point the president might have to transfer power if he can no longer discharge the powers and duties of his office?" Brennan asked.
"No, that's not something that's on the table at this point," O'Brien responded.
"But it may be as you just said," Brennan interjected before O'Brien touted Trump's recovery.
Brennan wasn't alone. There was a flurry of reports speculating about the 25th Amendment being implemented during Trump's bout with COVID like ABC News' "What happens if Trump becomes incapacitated? The 25th Amendment could kick in," The Associated Press' "AP Explains: Transfer of power under 25th Amendment" and the liberal site Slate's, "The 25th Amendment Needs an Update."
Media chatter over the 25th Amendment resurfaced months later following the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill, less than three weeks before Biden was sworn into office. CNN, ABC News and CNBC all reported that members of Trump's cabinet were having discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment, though it was never ultimately pursued.
Fast-forward to 2025. Trump was sworn back into office after defeating Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, all of which followed Biden's dramatic exit from the race last July.
After turning a blind eye for much of the Biden era regarding presidential health and wellness, the legacy media revived its intense scrutiny of Trump in the heat of the 2024 election. Last September, The Los Angeles Times speculated about Trump's "rhetorical walkabouts," suggesting it was a sign of "cognitive decline." CNN's Abby Philip argued there was a "double standard" regarding the lack of attention towards Trump's mental acuity. In October, PBS News Hour took aim at Trump's "rambling speeches," saying they "raise questions about mental decline." NBC News sounded the alarm over Trump's behavior at one campaign event with the story "Trump's bizarre music session reignites questions about his mental acuity," as did The New York Times with the headline "Trump's Speeches, Increasingly Angry and Rambling, Reignite the Question of Age." The Washington Post also asked, "How big a political problem is mental acuity for Trump?"
The media continued speculating about Trump's health even throughout his second term. Last month, USA Today columnist Rex Huppke penned a piece titled "Is Trump in mental decline? He sounds far worse than Biden ever did." The Daily Beast ran the headline, "Trump Shows Signs of 'Cognitive Decline' Says Speech Expert."
Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, the co-authors of the bombshell Biden book "Original Sin," have said during their book tour that one of the lessons learned in reporting on Biden's cognitive decline is for journalists to intensely pursue the truth about a president's health going forward, including Trump's.
"This goes beyond Joe Biden. It should be relevant to Donald Trump and whoever comes after Donald Trump," Tapper said.