Why Leaders Lie About Their Health

If something resembling President Trump’s current health crisis were happening in another country, perhaps one with a shorter history of peaceful transfers of power, we might be wondering right now if a member of the president’s inner circle, or commanders of the military, were about to seize power. That’s not the case here, but the impulse to hide information about the president’s health in order to protect his hold on power is awfully familiar.

Particularly in more authoritarian political systems—though not exclusively—physical illness often precedes political downfall. In one case,...