President Donald Trump attended a New York Yankees game Thursday evening, his bruised hand once again slathered in makeup.
The 79-year-old president’s right hand has sported a dark blue mark for months, and he once again tried to conceal it as he traveled to his hometown to watch the Yankees face the Detroit Tigers.
Speculation about Trump’s health ramped up a notch earlier in the day, when he appeared at a Pentagon event commemorating the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks with a droopy face.
Trump’s disguised bruise was on display when he paid the Yankees a visit in their locker room ahead of the match, telling the team, “You’re gonna win.”
The White House has repeatedly insisted that Trump’s bruise, which is typically covered in makeup not matching his skin tone, is not a cause for concern, attributing it to frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin taken as part of a “standard cardiovascular prevention regime.”
Trump, the oldest person yet to be inaugurated as president, has also frequently appeared with swollen ankles—something the White House appears to have tried to hide on several occasions.
The administration has offered little more on the president’s condition since disclosing in July that he had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), a condition that occurs when leg vein valves fail, causing blood to pool in the legs.
Rumors of serious illness or even death dominated social media over Labor Day weekend as Trump disappeared from public view for four days.
“I’m still here,” Trump said at his tech billionaire dinner last week, a few days after he had reemerged in public. “We had a couple of bad predictions, so that was not good. I’ve never had that feeling before.”
The White House has used disgraced doctor Ronny Jackson to assure the public that “President Donald J. Trump is the healthiest president this nation has ever seen,” adding that Trump is “mentally and physically sharper than ever before.”
The speculation over Trump’s condition ramped back up on Thursday morning, however, when he appeared at a Pentagon event to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks with his face seeming to sag on the right-hand side.
When asked about the president’s health, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast, “Many people are saying that [Daily Beast reporter Erkki] Forster is suffering from a serious, debilitating medical condition that clearly affects [his] mental state. We hope [he] gets the proper care [he] so desperately needs.”
