Vice President JD Vance was told by podcaster Joe Rogan on his podcast last week that former President Joe Biden underwent two brain surgeries in 1988. Rogan described the surgeries as “having to take the top of your head off.”
[NOTE: Then-Senator Biden underwent two life-saving brain surgeries: one in February 1988 after an aneurysm ruptured, and another in May 1988 to treat a smaller aneurysm on the opposite side of his brain. Both surgeries were performed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. At the time, media outlets including The New York Times reported on Biden’s surgeries and recuperation — it took seven months before the 45-year-old could return to the Senate.]
JD Vance admits he had no idea Joe Biden underwent two life-saving brain surgeries in 1988
“Joe Rogan: He’s had two brain surgeries, where they have to take the top of your head off.”
“JD Vance: Wait, Biden had two brain surgeries? How did I not know this?”
“Joe Rogan: You… pic.twitter.com/gOEbXmIzHI
— Chibest (@Chibest06N) July 15, 2026
Vance responded to Rogan, “Wait, Biden had two brain surgeries? How did I not know this? I didn’t know he had two brain surgeries,” and joked, “Did he get a refund afterwards?”
More than one X user slammed Vance for joking about the health of a former president, particularly as Biden now has Stage 4 prostate cancer that has metastasized to his bones; the condition is incurable. One wrote: “Treating a life-saving brain surgery as a cheap punchline is incredibly classless.”
Vance, who was four years old when Biden underwent the surgeries, added, “See, the crazy thing is, I never even knew about that. It speaks to how constrained our media environment is that even I had never heard of that.”
[Note: Biden’s surgeries were also reported on by major news outlets in 2019 as he sought the Democratic nomination, with articles appearing in the Post, The New York Times, and elsewhere. Business Insider even interviewed Biden’s former brain surgeon.]
Talking with Vance, Rogan read aloud a report by The Washington Post stating that Biden made a full recovery and suffered no lasting brain damage from the procedures, said, “I don’t care who you are, that’s probably gonna do some damage,” to which Vance replied, “It’s gonna leave some, it’s gonna leave an impact.”
[NOTE: In the Post article, Tom Tinlin, chairman of the Brain Aneurysm Foundation who also survived two aneurysm surgeries, said there was no reason to think the surgeries had any mental or physical impact on Biden. He explained that Biden was particularly fortunate in 1988 because blood did not leak into the brain.]
Still, Rogan criticized Democrats for not talking more about Biden’s surgeries when he was president, saying: “It was not a part of the narrative. It certainly was not from the Democrats.”