WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump fueled speculation Monday that Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis was covered up, saying he was “surprised” the public was not told about his predecessor’s condition earlier.

Republican Trump’s extraordinary claim came just a day after it emerged that his bitter Democratic political rival, 82, had an aggressive form of prostate cancer.

Trump also tried to tie the issue into a wider political row — sparked by a new book released this week — about whether Biden’s White House covered up evidence of his cognitive decline while in office.

Biden had earlier Monday expressed gratitude for an outpouring of “love and support” following his shock diagnosis.

“I’m surprised that the public wasn’t notified a long time ago,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked for his reaction to Biden’s cancer.

“It takes a long time to get to that situation, to get to a stage nine,” he added, apparently referring to the announcement by Biden’s office that his cancer had “a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5).”

Prostate cancer that looks “very abnormal” is assigned the highest rating, Grade 5, according to the American Cancer Society. The Gleason Score goes up to 10, indicating the seriousness of Biden’s disease.

Oncologists that AFP spoke with, however, said that screening limitations could very well have left Biden’s condition undetected until now, and that late identification of an advanced cancer would not be unheard of, even for a former president receiving top-of-the-line medical care.

– ‘Things going on’ –
Suggesting that tests when Biden was president should have picked up signs of the disease, Trump added: “If you take a look it’s the same doctor that said Joe was cognitively fine.”

“There are things going on that the public wasn’t informed of.”

Trump, who spent much of the 2024 election campaign bashing Biden’s cognitive fitness, had said in a statement on Sunday that he was “saddened” by the diagnosis.

But 24 hours later he was leaning into accusations by others in his orbit of a cover-up, including his son Don Jr.

Don Jr. questioned on Sunday whether the cancer should have been detected earlier — and then on Monday boosted unfounded claims Biden had covered up a previous diagnosis.

He posted a clip of Biden — whose son Beau died of brain cancer — saying in an apparent gaffe in 2022 that “I, and so damn many other people I grew up with, have cancer.”

Vice President JD Vance meanwhile said that “we really do need to be honest” about Biden’s fitness.

“You can separate the desire for him to have the right health outcome with a recognition that — whether it was doctors or whether there were staffers around the former president — I don’t think he was able to do a good job for the American people,” Vance said after a meeting with Pope Leo XIV.