President Donald Trump is in 'exceptional health,' his doctor says, after visit to Walter Reed

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is in “exceptional health," his physician said Friday after he underwent a checkup that included lab tests and preventive health assessments at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Trump spent roughly three hours at the Bethesda, Maryland, hospital earlier Friday for what his doctor, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, called a “scheduled follow-up evaluation" that was a “part of his ongoing health maintenance plan.” While there, Trump also got his yearly flu shot, as well as a COVID-19 booster vaccine.

“President Donald J. Trump remains in exceptional health, exhibiting strong cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological and physical performance,” Barbabella wrote in a one-page memo released Friday night by the White House. The doctor noted in the memo that the evaluation helped prepare for Trump's upcoming overseas trips and included advanced imaging, lab testing and preventive health assessments.

The president is traveling to the Middle East this weekend and is scheduled to fly to Asia at the end of this month.

Barbabella also said he evaluated Trump's cardiac age, which was about 14 years younger than his chronological age. Trump is 79 and was the oldest U.S. president at his inauguration.

The White House this week initially described Trump's Walter Reed visit as a “routine yearly checkup,” although Trump had his annual physical in April. The president then called it a “semiannual physical."

Trump's April physical found that he was “fully fit” to serve as commander in chief. The three-page summary of the exam done by Barbabella then said he had lost 20 pounds (9 kilograms) since a medical exam in June 2020 and said he has an “active lifestyle” that “continues to contribute significantly” to the well-being of the president.

In July, the White House announced that Trump had recently undergone a medical checkup after noticing “mild swelling” in his lower legs and was found to have a condition common in older adults that causes blood to pool in his veins. Tests by the White House medical unit showed that Trump has chronic venous insufficiency, which occurs when little valves inside the veins that normally help move blood against gravity gradually lose the ability to work properly.

At the April physical, Trump also passed a short screening test to assess different brain functions.

Presidents have large discretion over what health information they choose to release to the public. Trump’s summary from his April exam included information about his weight, body mass index, past surgeries, mental health screenings, cholesterol levels and blood pressure.

When spokesperson Karoline Leavitt discussed the results of his chronic venous insufficiency diagnosis from the briefing room, she noted that the White House was disclosing details of the checkup to dispel rumors about Trump’s health. At the time, Trump was frequently observed with bruising on his hand.

The Republican president has also repeatedly used the issue of health as a political cudgel. He repeatedly questioned the mental and physical health of his Democratic predecessor, President Joe Biden, and pointed out that he has undergone cognitive testing that Biden hadn’t.

Biden has brushed aside those criticisms and said he was fit to serve, but he dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House after a disastrous debate with Trump raised doubts about his fitness for office.

President Donald Trump departs Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump departs Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Friday, Oct. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn after arriving on Marine One at the White House, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn after arriving on Marine One at the White House, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump boards Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in Washington, as he heads to Walter Reed National Military Center. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump walks from the Oval Office to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in Washington, as he heads to Walter Reed National Military Center. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in Washington, as he heads to Walter Reed National Military Center. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with Finland's President Alexander Stubb in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

SYDNEY (AP) — As the sounds of bullets rang out and the bodies fell, the young mother threw herself on top of her 5-year-old son and prayed.

“Please don’t let us die,” 33-year-old Rebecca begged God from her hiding place under a table in a park overlooking Bondi, Australia’s most iconic beach. Rebecca spoke on condition that her last name not be used for fear of retaliation. “Please just keep my son safe.”

It was faith that drew Rebecca and hundreds of other members of Sydney’s Jewish community to this picturesque spot to celebrate the start of Hannukah. And it was faith that authorities said made her and others attending the Channukah by the Sea gathering a target of two gunmen who began firing at revelers around 6:40 p.m. on Sunday. Authorities have called it an antisemitic act of terrorism.

In the minutes that followed, the assault would take the lives of at least 15 people, officials said, including a 10-year-old girl, a Holocaust survivor and a beloved rabbi. It would also take away a sense of security in a country that, because of strict gun laws, has largely been insulated from the mass shootings so common in the United States and other Western nations.

This reconstruction is based on interviews with survivors and footage of the assault.

Under the table that held food for the partygoers, Rebecca pulled buckets of drinks on top of her body, to try and hide herself and her son. Suddenly, a man lying on his side just 10 centimeters (3 inches) from her was struck in the chest by a bullet.

“I’m dying,” he told Rebecca. “I can’t breathe.”

Under fire and separated from her husband and 7-year-old daughter, Rebecca could offer him nothing but words. “You’re going to be OK,” she told him desperately. “You’re going to be OK.”

She did not know if that was true.

It started out as a classic Sunday summer evening in Sydney. The sun had not yet set, and the temperature was still a balmy 29 degrees Celsius (84 degrees Fahrenheit). The Tasman Sea was speckled with swimmers and surfers.

In the park overlooking Bondi’s golden arc of sand, children giggled and cuddled animals at a petting zoo set up as part of the Hanukkah celebration. Rebecca’s son scampered up a rock-climbing wall. Music competed with the sound of crashing waves.

And then the bubbles floating through the air were replaced with bullets, the laughter replaced with screams. From their positions on one of the pedestrian bridges connecting the busy main road to the beach, two armed gunmen — a father and son, according to police — had begun firing into the crowd.

Young people began to run, but older people struggled to get up. From her perch on a bench, Rebecca watched in horror as a bullet struck an older woman sitting next to her. Rebecca grabbed her son and dove under the table.

On the beach and the boardwalk, it was bedlam.

Some surfers and swimmers frantically paddled ashore, while others sought safety in the sea. Eleanor, who also spoke on condition that her last name not be used for fear of retaliation, said she been walking down the boardwalk on her way to dinner when she heard the gunshots. Her mind went blank, apart from one command: “Run.” And so she did, fully clothed, into the ocean.

Crowds of people — gathered on a grassy slope overlooking the sea for a sunset viewing of the Christmas romcom, “The Holiday” — abandoned their blankets and beach chairs and fled.

From their hotel room overlooking the streets of Bondi, Joel Sargent, 30, and his partner, Grace, from Melbourne, heard the shots and began to film. Their footage, obtained by The Associated Press, shows that the gunfire went on for at least seven minutes, with dozens of blasts. Grace spoke on condition her last name not be used because she didn't want people at work to know she had been involved.

"Baby, I’m scared," Grace can be heard saying as they watched throngs of screaming people stream past their building. She shouted down to them: “Get off the street!”

Phones across the city lit up with panicked calls and messages. Lawrence Stand was at home when his phone rang. It was his 12-year-old daughter, who had been attending a bar mitzvah inside the Bondi Pavilion, overlooking the beach.

Stand told his daughter to stay on the phone as he leaped into his car and raced toward the beach. He found her and pulled her and others into his car, speeding them away from the carnage.

Many did not know where to find sanctuary. Inside a Greek restaurant, 20-year-old American friends Shira Elisha and Lexi Haag first hid in the restaurant’s bathroom, and then ran back to Elisha’s home, where they hid under her bedding. The pair wondered how a situation so common to the U.S. but so alien to Australia was happening here.

Back in the park, the man next to Rebecca was bleeding out. Rebecca’s 65-year-old mother-in-law grabbed a piece of discarded cardboard and pressed it against his wound.

The man did not survive.

The shots kept coming. Sirens wailed. Minutes passed. A bystander can be heard shouting in one video: “Where are the cops?”

That and other widely circulated videos of the attack chronicled what happened next.

Near one of the shooters, a passerby identified by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke as Ahmed al Ahmed crouched behind a parked car. Ahmed, a fruit shop owner and father of two, then rushed the shooter and wrestled away the gun, before pointing the weapon at the shooter, who fell to the ground. Ahmed was shot in the shoulder by the other gunman, but survived.

The man disarmed by Ahmed got up but, under fire from police, soon fell again. The other shooter traded fire with police for another minute before he, too, fell.

Police later confirmed the older of the two suspected gunmen, a 50-year-old, was fatally shot. His 24-year-old son, who was shot and wounded, is being treated at a hospital.

Back in the park, rescuers frantically pumped the chests of unmoving bodies on the grass, near a picnic table, an abandoned stroller and the petting zoo.

On Monday, Elisha, the American who hid in the restaurant bathroom, wandered down to the beach, where rows of shoes abandoned by fleeing beachgoers lined the sand.

“It just reminded me of the Holocaust — all these shoes lying here. This is like Oct. 7,” she said, referring to Hamas-led militants’ 2023 attack in Israel. “How many times do Jews need to be attacked before the world just wakes up and realizes that we have targets on our backs?”

After a sleepless night, Rebecca and her sister-in-law, draped in the flag of Israel, made their way to the beach to mourn before a memorial of flowers.

Rebecca’s children have asked her many questions since the attack, for which she has no answers, she said.

She has her own questions: for officials she said did little to address a surge in antisemitic crimes in Sydney and Melbourne over the past year.

“The world needs to wake up and see what’s happening,” she said. “They specifically targeted us, the Jewish people. ... No one did anything. They turned a blind eye.”

Police cordon off an area at Bondi Beach after a reported shooting in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

People offer hugs to each other at a flower memorial placed outside Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

A woman places an Israeli flag over flowers outside Bondi Pavilion at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after a shooting. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

A couple embrace a day after a shooting at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Shoes sit lined up following a shooting the day prior at Sydney's Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)