The White House’s Rapid Response team is in a public clash with Minnesota Congresswoman and physician Rep. Kelly Morrison. This comes as she challenged the administration’s description of a “preventive MRI” performed during President Donald Trump’s October medical evaluation at Walter Reed.

Morrison on Thursday, posted a video on X responding to a clip of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who had said that “advanced imaging” was conducted “as part of President Trump’s comprehensive executive physical.” Leavitt added, “The purpose of this imaging is preventative.”

What Morrison said

In her video message, Morrison, a practicing physician and the Democratic representative for Minnesota’s Third District, directly contradicted the White House’s explanation of the procedure.

“Doctor here. There’s no such thing as a ‘preventive MRI,’ that’s not a thing,” she said.

She went on to explain that MRIs are “not usually standard practice” and are “typically used to diagnose injuries or investigate symptoms concerning a serious condition.”

Morrison accused the administration of misleading the public about the nature of the imaging, saying: “So the White House can lie and Trump can claim he doesn’t know what they were scanning, but that’s just the truth.”

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White House pushes back

Within hours, the Trump administration’s Rapid Response team reposted Morrison’s video, and delivered a sharply personal counterattack.

“Kelly, you sound like a terrible doctor — with a terminal case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” it said. “That diagnosis is on the house.”

The clash arrives amid heightened scrutiny of Trump’s health. As the Associated Press reported, disputes over presidential medical transparency have a long legacy, from Grover Cleveland’s secret cancer surgery to Woodrow Wilson’s hidden stroke and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s polio-related complications.

Trump has frequently questioned President Biden’s cognitive fitness, and he is now facing the same level of public scrutiny that he once directed at his predecessor.

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The escalating rhetoric has also extended to the press. Trump recently attacked The New York Times for reporting on his physical condition. He called such coverage “seditious, perhaps even treasonous” and labeled the media “Enemies of the People.”

The Times responded that it would not be deterred by “false and inflammatory language” questioning the role of a free press.