Trump keeps doctor within 3 minutes

President Donald Trump’s physician or another medical colleague must remain within three minutes of him, The Daily Beast reported Oct. 18, citing the Wall Street Journal.

The report matters because Trump, 80, is serving under unusually close public scrutiny of presidential health; a former White House doctor has described a two-minute medical proximity standard for prior presidents.

The Daily Beast identified Trump’s primary doctor as Dr. Sean Barbabella, 56, a Navy captain who worked in Afghanistan before taking the White House role. The article said White House staff often leave when Barbabella and Trump speak, citing one person familiar with the physician’s work.

That person described Barbabella’s bedside manner as “low key and direct,” according to the article. The same report said the arrangement is not abnormal for presidential medical care.

Dr. Jeffrey Kuhlman, who held White House medical posts during the Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama administrations, has described a doctor and critical care nurse staying within two minutes of the president, according to the Daily Beast article.

Barbabella’s public May 2026 assessment described Trump as fit for office and said an “Al-enhanced electrocardiogram(ECG) analysis” put Trump’s cardiac age at about 14 years below his actual age. The report also said Barbabella advised Trump to reduce aspirin use, increase exercise and change diet and weight-loss habits.

The article placed Barbabella’s memo in a longer history of unusually positive medical statements about Trump. Harold Bornstein, Trump’s personal doctor from 1980 to 2018, wrote in 2015 that Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency,” then told CNN in 2018 that Trump had dictated the letter.

The Daily Beast also cited Trump’s comments at an Ohio rally last week, where he described continuing a daily aspirin habit despite doctors’ advice. “I take an aspirin a day. I don’t know if it works, but psychologically I need it,” Trump said, according to the article.

Source: news article, The Daily Beast, Oct. 18, 2026