President Donald Trump apparently has no more insight into Sen. Mitch McConnell’s condition than the rest of the country does.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday, the president said he had not spoken with the Kentucky Republican since his recent hospitalization. “I have no idea how he’s doing,” Trump said, according to CNN’s Alayna Treene.
McConnell, 84, has not been seen or heard from publicly since he entered the hospital on June 14, and his office has declined to explain what sent him there, WHAS11 reported. The longest-serving senator in Kentucky history plans to leave Congress when his current term ends in January 2027. (RELATED: We Asked Mitch McConnell’s Staff About His Health. This Is What They Told Us)
His team has offered little beyond a short update released July 2. “The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session,” the statemetn from his office read, according to NBC News.
Trump on McConnell: “I have no idea how he’s doing”
— Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene) July 8, 2026
The silence has fed weeks of online speculation. Axios reported Wednesday that emergency crews responded to an unconscious person at McConnell’s address the same day he was admitted and performed CPR, though the dispatch call never named the senator as the patient.
Republican leaders have worked to quiet the rumors by pointing to recent phone conversations with McConnell. A spokeswoman for Sen. John Barrasso told CBS News on Wednesday that the Kentucky lawmaker “was fully engaged and is eager to get back to the Senate,” while CNN commentator Scott Jennings claimed to have spoken with McConnell on Tuesday.
“We talked for just shy of 20 minutes … about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the TR Presidential Library, and even a little bit of Senate history,” Jennings posted on X. “I told him we want to see him back at work as soon as possible.”
I spoke to my old friend Mitch McConnell this morning, the senior Senator from Kentucky. He’s still recovering in the hospital. We talked for just shy of 20 minutes … about IRAN, UKRAINE, the unfolding situation in MAINE, my visit to the TR Presidential Library, and even a…
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) July 7, 2026
Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear pushed McConnell to break his silence in a letter sent Wednesday. “Over the last several weeks, Kentuckians have grown increasingly concerned about the current state of your health and wellbeing, and ability to hold office in the United States Senate,” Beshear wrote, according to NBC News.
McConnell has weathered a series of health scares in recent years, including a 2023 concussion, several on-camera freezes and an eight-day hospital stay in February for flu-like symptoms, WHAS11 reported.