President Donald Trump said Monday he was “surprised” the public didn’t know about former President Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis sooner—a comment that came after other Republicans, including Vice President JD Vance, appeared to insinuate Biden may have hidden his cancer diagnosis from the American public while he was in office.

Former President Joe Biden during a farewell event with staff at Joint Base Andrews in Suitland, MD … More on Friday, January 20, 2025. (Photo by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The Washington Post via Getty Images

Key Facts

Speaking to reporters Monday evening, Trump said Biden’s diagnosis was “very sad,” but added: “I’m surprised that it wasn’t, you know, the public wasn’t notified a long time ago, because to get stage 9, that’s a long time.”

Trump was seemingly referring to an announcement saying Biden’s diagnosis was “characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone,” though he has stage 4 prostate cancer, which is the most advanced stage.

Trump then told reporters he just had his physical and said he was “proud to announce I aced” the cognitive tests, saying, “I got them all right.”

Vance, when asked about Biden’s diagnosis of stage 4 prostate cancer, replied, “why didn’t the American people have a better sense of his health picture? Why didn’t the American people have more accurate information about what he was actually dealing with?”

The questions echo those on the right who have repeated claims made during Biden’s presidency that he was concealing a serious illness.

A clip of Biden saying during a July 2022 speech that an oil spill in Delaware was the reason “I and so damn many other people I grew up [with] have cancer” is being reshared on social media, though the White House said at the time Biden was referring to non-melanoma skin cancer.

A claim from right-wing activist Laura Loomer—and noted conspiracist— last summer that Biden was “in the terminal stage of his illness” and “had a medical emergency on Air Force One” is also getting renewed attention (Loomer cited an unnamed “medical source in DC,” though her claims were never verified).

Some doctors have also said it’s unlikely Biden’s diagnosis was sudden, given its advanced stage and his accessibility to screening: Yale professor of radiology and biomedical imagining Howard Forman tweeted that it’s “inconceivable” Biden’s prostate health wasn’t being followed before he left office.

Vance, who spoke to reporters as he returned from a trip to Rome to meet the new pope, also said Biden’s announcement—which came days before the Tuesday release of a damning new book about his mental state during his 2024 campaign—shouldn’t stop further scrutiny into his cognitive health during the campaign: “In some ways, I blame him less than I blame the people around him,” Vance said.

Chief Critics

Donald Trump Jr. in a tweet questioned how “Dr. Jill Biden” overlooked “stage five metastatic cancer,” asking “or is this yet another coverup???” The post erroneously suggests Jill Biden is a medical doctor (she has a doctorate in education) and wrongly states that Biden has stage five cancer, which is not an official medical term. Right-wing podcaster and YouTube host Benny Johnson called the cancer diagnosis “the most dangerous cover-up in the history of the presidency.” Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, and Trump’s former White House physician, tweeted that it’s “unbelievable this was missed, but the truth is [Biden’s] physician was more concerned about assisting with the political cover up than providing world class medical care.”

Contra

Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., a urologist, tweeted that while he believes “Biden’s declining mental acuity was covered up, it is medically reckless to assume his prostate cancer was as well,” noting Biden might not have been routinely screened and that more detailed screenings are often needed to detect prostate cancer. Jonathan Waxman, a professor of oncology at Imperial College London and founder of Prostate Cancer UK, told Newsweek that since Biden has an aggressive form of cancer, it may have developed rapidly.

What To Watch For

“Original Sin,” by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson is set to be released Tuesday and is expected to be one of the most damning pictures to date of what the authors describe as a “cover up” of his declining mental state, including claims that aides discussed the possibility of him needing a wheelchair.

Key Background

Biden has “a more aggressive form” of “hormone sensitive” prostate cancer that’s “characterized by a Gleason score of 9 with metastasis to the bone,” meaning the cancer is likely to grow and spread quickly, his spokesperson said in a statement over the weekend. Biden received the diagnosis Friday after a “small nodule” was identified in his prostate earlier this month, the spokesperson said.

Tangent

Biden posted a photo on X Monday of him and Jill Biden, thanking well-wishers. “Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places,” quoting Ernest Hemingway.

Further Reading

Joe Biden Diagnosed With ‘Aggressive’ Form Of Prostate Cancer (Forbes)

Trump, Obama And Other Leaders From Both Parties Send Well Wishes To Biden After Cancer Diagnosis (Forbes)