Photographs of President Donald Trump at the Pentagon’s observance on Friday, September 11, 2026, marking 25 years since the September 11 attacks, appeared to show swelling around his ankles, pulling a condition the White House disclosed more than a year ago back into public view.
Trump, 80, sat beside First Lady Melania Trump during the service in Arlington, Virginia, while all other living presidents and their spouses attended the ceremony at Ground Zero in New York. Pictures from the event showed him slouching in his seat, and images from the ceremony showed ankles that appeared to spill over the edges of his shoes.
Some social media users said the president appeared to nod off or struggle to stay awake while the names of the victims were read aloud. No official has confirmed that.
What the pictures cannot show matters as much. Photographs by themselves cannot determine the cause, the severity or the progression of swelling in any individual, and they cannot establish whether what appeared at the Pentagon represented any change in Trump’s condition. Neither the White House nor any other official indicated that the president experienced an acute medical problem during the ceremony, and no change in his condition has been officially confirmed.
What the White House Has Disclosed
The underlying diagnosis is not new. On July 17, 2025, the White House released a statement saying Trump, then 79, had undergone a comprehensive examination that identified chronic venous insufficiency after he developed swelling in his lower legs. The workup included bilateral lower-extremity venous Doppler ultrasound scans.
The White House physician, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, called it “a benign and common condition,” one seen particularly in people over 70, and his July 2025 memorandum reported that the testing turned up no evidence of deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease. In Trump’s annual physical on April 11, 2025, Barbabella had written that blood flow to the president’s extremities was unimpaired and declared him in excellent health.
The most recent public account of Trump’s health came in a White House memorandum in May 2026, which said he remained in “excellent health” and noted mild swelling in his lower legs, an improvement on where things stood a year earlier. The physician added that the president was fully fit to carry out the duties of his office.
How the Condition Works
Chronic venous insufficiency develops when the valves inside the leg veins stop returning blood to the heart efficiently. Blood then pools in the lower limbs, and the lower legs and ankles can swell. It grows more common with age, and clinicians describe it as a chronic problem managed over a lifetime rather than cured.
Estimates of how many people live with it vary. The Cleveland Clinic says the condition affects about one in 20 adults, while other estimates put the share of affected adults at 10 percent to 35 percent, most of them 65 or older. Trump is the second oldest president in U.S. history.
Standard management is unglamorous: walking and other activity, keeping the feet elevated while seated, and medical-grade compression stockings. Because swelling in the legs can stem from a range of other medical issues, clinicians assess patients with a venous reflux ultrasound, which measures how well the veins move blood back toward the heart, rather than judging by appearance.
Trump has talked about his own approach. He told The Wall Street Journal, in an interview published on January 1, 2026, that he wore compression socks for a time but gave them up, and that he instead tries not to stay seated for long stretches. The president golfs for exercise but often rides a cart. Davis Ingle, a White House spokesman, has previously met questions about the president’s health by rejecting any suggestion that he is flagging.
Inside the Pentagon Ceremony
The service honored the 184 people killed when hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, part of a coordinated attack that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was among the senior officials in attendance. The Department of War said the event honored those killed and recognized the consequences the country still carries from that day.
Trump’s presence at the Pentagon rather than at the main commemoration was known well in advance; he announced in August that he would mark the anniversary in Washington. Vice President JD Vance attended the Ground Zero ceremony, where four former presidents — Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — were also on hand. In his Pentagon remarks, Trump paid tribute to the victims, survivors, first responders and military personnel, and connected the period that followed the attacks to his administration’s military campaign against Iran.
The anniversary week also brought a White House honor tied to the attacks. On September 8, Trump posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Welles Crowther, the equities trader and volunteer firefighter known as “the man in the red bandana,” who was 24 when he died helping others escape the South Tower and is credited with helping as many as 18 people escape.
On the night of September 11, the president left Washington, D.C., for Ireland, where he was scheduled to spend the weekend. No White House statement has been issued about the photographs from the Pentagon.