Donald Trump's health has come under renewed scrutiny after the White House confirmed he wasrushed from his Florida golf club in Jupiteron Saturday for what it called a 'scheduled appointment at his local dentist,' despite no such visit appearing on his public diary.

Questions over the 79‑year‑old president's fitness had already been building after a string of late‑night Truth Social posts in which he boasted about his mental acuity and claimed, incorrectly, to have served three terms in office. The abrupt dentist trip, followed by a carefully vague statement from officials, has now become the latest flashpoint in a long‑running debate over whether Trump is physically and cognitively up to the job.

The concern was first stoked by one of Trump's staunch allies in Congress. At 7am on Sunday, Republican Representative Nancy Mace posted a brief but pointed message on X, writing simply: 'pray for President Trump.' She offered no explanation, leaving supporters and critics to fill in the gaps as reports of the mysterious dentist visit began circulating.

Witnesses had seen Secret Service agents whisk Trump away from his Jupiter golf course on Saturday for what aides later described as a dental appointment. The White House, asked to clarify, said only that the president had attended a 'scheduled appointment at his local dentist' and declined to give further details. No update was issued on what procedure, if any, had been carried out or why the engagement was absent from his published schedule.

The official line did little to settle things. On Trump's public calendar, the last documented visit to the dentist was on 10 January. The lack of advance notice for Saturday's appointment, coupled with Mace's oddly urgent call for prayers, left an information vacuum that quickly filled with rumours about the president's health and whether something more serious might have taken place.

It did not help that this latest episode followed an already unusual week of behaviour from the president online. Earlier, Trump had used his social media platform to insist that every candidate for president or vice president should be forced to take a cognitive test before entering the race.

Anybody running for President or Vice President should be forced to take a Cognitive Examination prior to entering the Race! By doing so, we wouldn’t be surprised at people like Barack “Hussein” Obama, or Sleepy Joe Biden, getting “ELECTED.” Our Country would be a much better…pic.twitter.com/RTSfzEh7ld

'Anybody running for President or Vice President should be forced to take a Cognitive Examination prior to entering the Race,' he wrote, in comments reported by theMirror. He argued that such a requirement would have prevented voters from being 'surprised at people like Barack 'Hussein' Obama, or Sleepy Joe Biden, getting 'ELECTED.'

In the same post,Trump claimed he had taken such an exam three timesduring what he described as his 'THREE!' terms as president and had 'ACED IT ALL THREE TIMES.' The US constitution, of course, permits only two terms, and Trump has in reality served one.

Trump is widely believed to be referring to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or MoCA, a screening tool used by doctors to pick up early signs of cognitive decline. It is not an IQ test and is usually administered to older patients or those whose memory or thinking has raised some concern.

Source: International Business Times UK