December 12 2025, 08:15 
Many have voiced alarm over a long, rambling post by Donald Trump on Truth Social in which he admitted to taking multiple cognitive tests while surrounded by doctors and also called it treasonous to question his health.
Many agree that the president’s vehement and repeated denials of his failing health are an admission that he is unwell. One columnist drew a stark parallel between Trump’s behavior and that of his former mentor, the late gay lawyer Roy Cohn, who denied he was suffering from AIDS up until he died from the disease in 1986.
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Cohn – who LGBTQ Nation writer John Gallagher once called “the most evil gay man in U.S. history” – is known for aiding Joseph McCarthy in the government’s purge of suspected communist and LGBTQ+ employees (he never spoke publicly about his own sexuality). He began representing Trump in the 1970s and ultimately became something of a father figure to him.
In an op-ed for the Daily Beast, writer John Casey points out the disturbing parallels between Cohn’s stark refusals to acknowledge his failing health and the president’s behavior today.
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“One of Cohn’s deepest teachings wasn’t about politics,” Casey writes. “It was about the body. It was about hiding vulnerability at any cost.”
He explains Cohn’s refusal to admit he had AIDS – even threatening to sue his doctor if he spoke the word – and how he used makeup to cover up his sores and gray appearance. It may sound familiar to those who have been following Trump’s own use of makeup to hide sores on his hands this past year.
Cohn ultimately claimed on 60 Minutes that he had liver cancer, which Casey called “a desperate attempt to maintain the illusion of control.”
Casey says Cohn’s strategy was “all about power” rather than about privacy.
“In his worldview, illness meant weakness, and weakness meant forfeiting control. You didn’t admit it. You didn’t hint at it. And you certainly didn’t let journalists see it.”
This, Casey explains, is why
Trump’s recent post, for example, declared, “I go out of my way to do long, thorough, and very boring Medical Examinations at the Great Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, seen and supervised by top doctors, all of whom have given me PERFECT Marks — Some have even said they have never seen such Strong Results.”
Casey explains, “The point isn’t medical accuracy. The point is that only a traitor would question the invincibility of King Donald Trump, a 79-year-old elderly man whose ‘perfect’ days are long behind him.”
In his rambling Truth Social post, Trump calls out the New York Times as “seditious, perhaps even treasonous” for questioning his health. Casey calls it “striking” that the president is so fixated on the story, considering it is over two weeks old.
“Trump can dismiss ballroom architects in a heartbeat, but he can’t let this Times piece go. The fact that he’s still raging about it is telling.”
Casey goes on to say that Trump’s lies and exaggerations are “Cohn speaking through him” and that our focus shouldn’t only be on what is actually happening to Trump’s health but also on “how thoroughly Trump relies on Cohn’s rules to manage reality.”
“He cannot allow transparency. He cannot tolerate scrutiny. He cannot permit the idea that his body, like every body, is vulnerable to time.”
He also can’t admit any political vulnerability, Casey adds. “It’s why he lashes out at any acknowledgment of mistakes. It’s why unfavorable polls are ‘fake,’ court losses and elections ‘rigged,’ investigative reporting ‘treason.'”
From Cohn, Casey concludes, Trump learned that the truth doesn’t matter as long as the illusion is “airtight.”
“I do these Tests because I owe it to our Country,” the president wrote. “In addition to the Medical, I have done something that no other President has done, on three separate occasions, the last one being recently, by taking what is known as a Cognitive Examination, something which few people would be able to do very well, including those working at The New York Times, and I ACED all three of them in front of large numbers of doctors and experts, most of whom I do not know. I have been told that few people have been able to ‘ace’ this Examination and, in fact, most do very poorly, which is why many other Presidents have decided not to take it at all.”
Casey believes these claims can be easily explained. “When Trump doesn’t want you to see something, he overkills, overcompensates, and overreacts. That’s when you know something is very, very wrong.”
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