President Donald Trump expressed sympathy for his predecessor’s cancer diagnosis and surprise that the diagnosis was so recently revealed.

Former President Joe Biden’s office announced Sunday that Biden has an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer. The statement said that Biden received the diagnosis on Friday.

“I think it’s very sad, actually. I’m surprised that the public wasn’t notified a long time ago because to get to stage 9, that’s a long time,” Trump told reporters on Monday afternoon.

Biden’s cancer is stage four, but he received a Gleason score of nine, Grade Group 5. A Gleason score is a metric for grading prostate cancer. Higher scores, such as a nine or 10, suggest a much more aggressive, faster-spreading form of cancer.

“I just had my physical. You saw that, you saw the results of that particular test. I think that test is standard to pretty much anybody getting a physical, good physical,” said Trump.

Trump added that his physical included “cognitive tests” and said “anybody running for president should, you know, take a cognitive test.”

Biden’s office said in its Sunday statement that the former president’s prostate cancer has “metastasis to the bone.”

“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” the statement said. “The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”

Biden posted a message on social media Monday: “Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”

The Sunday announcement has sparked skepticism from some physicians who say that, given the advanced form of Biden’s cancer, it is likely the former president was diagnosed much earlier.

Dr. Chris George, the medical director of Northwestern Health Network’s cancer program, said he would be shocked if Biden received a normal PSA, a prostate cancer screening result, within the past year.

“I would assume that the former president gets a very thorough physical every year,” George told Reuters. “I would be interested to know what his PSA was the last time it was checked.”

“It’s sort of hard for me to believe that he’s had a PSA within the past year, that was normal,” he said. “It’s possible. It’s definitely possible, but that would surprise me … Usually prostate cancer doesn’t, you know, go full throttle like this too often. When it does, that’s usually a bad, bad sign. That’s an aggressive cancer for sure. But it does seem odd to me.”

Naomi Biden lashed out at the forthcoming book from CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson — which explores the extent of her grandfather’s obvious cognitive and physical decline while in the White House — and claimed it amounted to little more than “uninspired lies.”

Naomi, whose father is Biden’s embattled son Hunter Biden, responded to a post on X that claimed Tapper and Thompson were publishing the book in an effort to make themselves the “center of attention” — and that they would be better served to focus on President Donald Trump and his “daily assaults on our constitution.”

“Tapper and Thompson want to be the center of the conversation because it will help them sell books. But with daily assaults on our constitution by the current inhabitant of the WH, the rest of us have, or should have, more important things to focus on.” https://t.co/RPleruhgwI

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 19, 2025

“Just read a copy of this silly book, and if anyone is curious for a review from someone who lived it first-hand: this book is political fairy smut for the permanent, professional chattering class,” Naomi Biden wrote in response. “The ones who rarely enter the arena, but profit from the spectacle of those that do.”

“Put simply, it amounts to a bunch of unoriginal, uninspired lies written by irresponsible self promoting journalists out to make a quick buck,” she complained. “It relies on unnamed, anonymous sources pushing a self-serving false narrative that absolves them of any responsibility for our current national nightmare. All of this at the expense of a man so completely good and honest that it is impossible for these people to ever understand the why or how of it all. There are real stories to be told and one day they will be. I suspect history will reward the truth.”

The book, set for release on May 20, will hit shelves just two days after the former president’s office announced that he was diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that had already metastasized to his bones. That announcement led to some — even some who had been critical of Biden’s fitness and his decision to run again in 2024 — to say that perhaps he should be left alone.

David Axelrod, who served as chief campaign strategist to former President Barack Obama, said that the conversation about Biden’s cognitive fitness “should be more muted and set aside for now as he’s struggling through this.”

.@davidaxelrod: Conversations about Biden’s mental acuity “should be more muted and set aside for now as he’s struggling through this.”https://t.co/ULDkqRS9O9

— Adam Wren (@adamwren) May 18, 2025