WASHINGTON — Republican Rep. Neal Dunn was diagnosed with a “terminal” heart illness, President Donald Trump said Monday, adding that doctors initially predicted the North Florida lawmaker would “be dead by June.”

“OK, that wasn’t public,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in an awkward moment. Trump patted him on the back.

The diagnosis offers an explanation for Dunn’s sudden announcement in January that he wouldn’t seek a sixth term, sparking rumors that he would soon resign. Trump said he introduced 73-year-old Dunn to White House physicians who offered expert medical help.

Trump let Dunn’s diagnosis slip during a board meeting at the White House for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. His comments were brought on by discussion of the narrow GOP majority in the House — Trump said he introduced his doctors to Dunn “for him first and for the vote second.”

“But it was a close second, actually,” he joked.

Dunn, a urologist and former Army surgeon, is one of roughly three dozen House Republicans so far who won’t be returning in 2027 because they are retiring, lost primaries or are seeking other offices.

Johnson said Dunn has “a new lease on life” after seeing White House doctors. Trump added that his doctors went to see Dunn and he was “on the operating table like two hours later. … They gave him more stents and more everything that you can have.”

“He acts like he’s 30 years younger, and he walked into the conference meeting and we thought we’d seen a ghost,” Johnson said of Dunn. “I spoke with him over the weekend, and he’s encouraged and thankful.”

“Most are going to say, ‘Mike, I’m retiring immediately. That’s the end.’ But he didn’t do that. It’s really, really impressive,” Trump said. “(The doctors) called up, they said, ‘Sir, I think it’ll be fine.’ I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’”

Dunn’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment or update on Dunn’s condition.

“The time has come to pass the torch to new conservative leaders, return home to Panama City, and spend more precious time with my family and our beloved grandchildren,” Dunn said in a January statement on his retirement.

Dunn was first elected to Florida’s 2nd District in 2016 after redistricting transformed what had been a competitive seat into a safe GOP one. Republicans will be strongly favored to hold the Panhandle district. Dunn won a fifth term in 2024 by 23 points, while district voters backed Donald Trump by 18 points, according to calculations by Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales.

Dunn has kept a relatively low profile in Congress while working to advance the interests of his district and supporting an overarching conservative agenda.

A member of the GOP Doctors Caucus, Dunn is a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has significant influence over health care policy, and was named the panel’s vice chair in July 2025.

Dunn has consistently criticized the 2010 Affordable Care Act. He has also led nuts-and-bolts bills, ranging from streamlining the reimbursement process for radiologic diagnostic screenings to a bipartisan effort with Illinois Democrat Danny K. Davis to revamp treatments for Medicaid patients with sickle cell anemia.

He also sits on the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.

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(Mary Ellen McIntire and Nick Eskow contributed to this report.)

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