Updated May 21, 2025 at 9:36 AM EDT
Former President Joe Biden had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer until Friday, and his last known screening test was in 2014, his office said on Tuesday, responding to allegations from President Trump that the diagnosis had been concealed.
Trump late Monday suggested without evidence that Biden delayed sharing the news, saying it was part of a pattern of the Biden White House covering up the former president's decline.
A week ago, the former president's office said a small nodule had been found on Biden's prostate after he experienced urinary symptoms. His team announced the diagnosis on Sunday, saying it was aggressive with a Gleason score of 9 and had metastasized to the bone. (Gleason scores combine how many cancerous cells are seen in a needle-biopsy tissue sample, and how aggressive the cells appear to be.)
"I'm surprised that the public wasn't notified a long time ago because to get to Stage 9, that's a long time," Trump said, appearing to conflate the Gleason score with the stage of Biden's cancer. Biden has Stage 4 cancer, the most serious of the four stages. (There is not a Stage 9 cancer.)
Trump also said that he believed screening for prostate cancer was "standard" in physical exams. The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force does not recommend that men over the age of 70 get routine prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening because the potential harms outweigh the benefits. The task force recommends that men ages 55 to 69 discuss PSA screening with their doctors.
Biden is 82 years old. In 2014, the time of Biden's last known screening test, he would have been over the age of 70.
Disclosures of medical information are up to the White House
Presidents are not obligated to reveal their medical records, and there is a long history of presidents concealing their medical issues. Disclosures of physicals is left up to the White House.
"I think that if you take a look, it's the same doctor that said that Joe was cognitively fine," Trump said. "And that's being proven to be a sad situation." He insinuated that Biden officials had been effectively running the office by using the autopen to sign documents — a spurious far-right theory.
Trump, 78 — who himself has been less than forthcoming about his health information in recent years — noted that he had been screened for prostate cancer during his recent physical. He also pointed out that he had been given a cognitive test.
Biden's last presidential physical was in February 2024. At the time, the White House said that the exam drew on the expertise of 20 doctors, but did not involve a cognitive exam — something his press secretary said was not required given his daily performance of a rigorous job.
There had been concerns about Biden's age raised in a special counsel report that described him as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." When Biden froze up during a presidential debate with Trump in June 2024, his physician released a letter with more details about visits with a neurologist.
That debate prompted Democratic leaders to push Biden to drop out of the race. After Vice President Kamala Harris lost the election to Trump, many blamed Biden for insisting he could run for a second term.
The issues are part of a new book about Biden's decline and efforts made by his staff to conceal it from voters.
Trump told reporters on Monday that the lack of public information about Biden's health had been "dangerous for our country" and pointed to Russia's war in Ukraine as an example. Trump frequently blames that war on Biden, even though it was started by Russia.
"I feel very badly about it, and I think people should try and find out what happened," Trump said, suggesting that "somebody is not telling the facts."
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