The oldest president in American history went to Walter Reed today for his third medical visit in thirteen months. The White House called it routine. Three visits in thirteen months is not routine. His last substantive medical report was three pages long. Three pages for the most powerful person on earth conducting an active war while turning eighty years old in June.

He has been less than forthcoming about his health. That is the White House's own characterization, not an editorial opinion.

Here is what else is less than forthcoming this week.

Hurricane season begins in six days. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasts it will be above normal. FEMA has lost more than five thousand employees since January 2025. The administration spent sixteen months gutting the agency, fired the acting administrator for testifying that eliminating it was not in the best interests of the American people, replaced experienced disaster professionals with political loyalists, and is now frantically rehiring two hundred of the thousands it fired because the deadline is six days away.

The CDC has been barred from communicating with the WHO during an active hantavirus outbreak with no confirmed director and no confirmed surgeon general.

The man who cannot be transparent about his own health has spent sixteen months making sure the institutions responsible for protecting yours cannot do their jobs either.

The MAGA hat guy paid forty dollars for a hat made in China. He is paying the tariff on it. And when the hurricane comes he will be waiting for FEMA to answer a phone that has been largely unstaffed for over a year.

The con artist does not worry about the roof until it is raining. By then he is already somewhere else.

The pattern is this consistent. — Barron St. John, The Decoder Ring