US President Donald Trump has undergone his third medical check in 13 months amid speculation about his health sparked by pictures of bruises on his hands and swollen ankles.

Doctors at Walter Reed Military Medical Centre gave Trump what was described as a “routine” six-month physical check-up.

Trump, who will turn 80 next month, boasted afterwards on social media that he had been given a perfect bill of health but offered no details on the physical.

“Everything checked out PERFECTLY,” he wrote on Truth Social.

“Thank you to the great Doctors and Staff!”

The visit took about 3½ hours, a White House official said.

Details of the examination could be expected “in the next day or so.”

“President Trump is the sharpest and most accessible president in American history who is working nonstop to solve problems and deliver on his promises, and he remains in excellent health,” a White House spokesperson told the US’s ABC News.

The check-up follows a year of public attention on apparently minor health ‌issues.

Trump frequently casts himself as more ‌energetic and fitter than former Democratic president Joe Biden, who left office last year at age 82 after facing questions about his fitness for the job.

Still, recent photographs showing a blotchy neck rash have added to questions about Trump’s health, following images in July 2025 of swollen ankles and a bruised hand concealed with makeup.

Trump has explained the bruises as a result of frequent hand shaking.

A bruise on Donald Trump’s right hand when greeting South Korean President Lee Jae Myungin in August. Photo: AAP

The White House has cited the use of blood-thinning medication as a cause.

Last July, the White House announced that Trump suffers from chronic venous insufficiency, a harmless condition of the leg veins that occurs mainly in older people.

In October, physician Sean Barbabella said that Trump had the heart and vascular system of a 65-year-old, despite the President being 79, following what Trump called a “semiannual physical”.

Trump, whose birthday is June 14, became the oldest person to assume the US presidency when he began his second term in January 2025.

The visit ‌to Walter Reed was ⁠his third in 13 months.

Donald Trump’s left foot and swollen ankle in July. Photo: AAP

Trump maintains an active golf schedule, but joked about his relative lack ​of exercise at a recent Oval Office event where his health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, said the President walks 14.5 kilometres every time he goes golfing.

“When I am not using the cart,” Trump said.

Barbabella has said Trump uses a common cream as “a preventative skin treatment” to address the neck rash, but he has not given details of the condition being treated.

After the photographs of Trump’s swollen legs and bruised hands were published ⁠last July, Barbabella wrote that the ailments were benign and ‌that there was ​no evidence of deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease.

Trump said last October that he had received a magnetic resonance imaging exam that month. The White House initially declined ​to share further details on the reason for the scan. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said only that it indicated “exceptional physical health” for Trump.

He later said the MRI was part of a second physical exam.

“Getting an MRI is very standard. What, you think I shouldn’t have ​it? ​Other people get it. … I had an MRI. The doctor ​said it was the best result he has ever seen as a doctor,” ‌Trump said.

Medical experts noted that MRIs are not typically part of a routine physical and are usually prescribed to get detailed images of the body.

In a memo after the second exam, Barbabella said Trump’s cardiac age — a validated measure of cardiovascular vitality via ECG — was found to be about 14 years younger than his chronological age.

Trump has also faced questions after appearing to fall asleep during several meetings, including a session with his cabinet.

“Some people said, ​he closed his eyes. Look, it got pretty boring,” Trump told laughing officials in February.

“I didn’t sleep. I just closed them because I wanted ​to get the hell outta here.”

Biden last ⁠year was diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that spread to his bones, and underwent radiation therapy.

The White House said earlier this month that Trump would have “routine annual dental and medical assessments as part of his regular preventive health care”.

US presidents traditionally release information about their health, although they are not legally required to do so.

-with AAP