A bruise on the hand of a 79-year-old man wouldn’t usually make headlines, until that man is Donald Trump, the president who campaigned in 2024 on being sharper, stronger, and more healthy than Joe Biden. What started as a curious blotch on his hand has spiraled into months of hypothesis, with the White Home providing shifting explanations which have solely deepened doubts about Trump’s well being.The bruise that wouldn’t fadeThe saga started on February 24, 2025, when a Getty photographer snapped Trump greeting French President Emmanuel Macron. The close-up revealed a darkish bruise smeared with make-up, clumsily hid however unmistakable. Observers quickly realized the mark had been seen way back to spring 2024, when Trump himself dismissed it because the byproduct of “overzealous handshakes.”“A girl gripped my hand so exhausting, the Secret Service needed to step in,” Trump instructed the Washington Examiner in 2024. He repeated the story to Time journal later that 12 months.However because the bruise lingered into 2025, the reason started to unravel.Make-up, cameras, and awkward excusesBy summer time, Trump was frequently noticed with mismatched concealer caked on his hand. A C-SPAN cameraman zoomed in on the blotchy make-up throughout a July press occasion, sparking recent scrutiny. The White Home doubled down, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt calling the bruise nothing greater than “tender tissue irritation” from limitless handshakes and day by day aspirin.The ankle twistThen got here the curveball. On the FIFA Membership World Cup Last in New Jersey on July 13, Trump was photographed with swollen ankles. Days later, the White Home deserted the handshake protection and admitted the president had been recognized with persistent venous insufficiency (CVI), a vascular situation frequent in older adults that hampers blood circulation from the legs to the guts.Trump’s physician, Sean Barbabella, assured reporters there was “no proof of coronary heart failure or severe sickness.” However essential particulars about remedy stay undisclosed, with Leavitt insisting, “You see the president on daily basis, he’s working, he’s transferring, he’s persevering with.”Consultants weigh inNot everyone seems to be satisfied the story provides up. Dr Peter Henke, a former chair of the American Coronary heart Affiliation’s vascular council, instructed New York Journal that the bruising on Trump’s hand is “unrelated to venous insufficiency.” As an alternative, Henke urged, aspirin use might clarify the bizarre bruising.The White Home has not allowed Dr Barbabella to face questions instantly, regardless of earlier promising transparency.
