President Donald Trump’s bruised right hand was on display Friday night while heading back to Washington, D.C., after a speaking engagement in New York.
Trump, 79, was photographed with that hand up while addressing a group of reporters on the tarmac of Morristown Airport in New Jersey. He had just given a speech at Rockland Community College in Suffern, New York, in which he yet again proudly claimed to have passed several cognitive tests, created nonsensical math about prescription drug prices, mocked transgender weightlifters, and made it known that he really doesn’t want to be seen as dumb.
Trump, who turns 80 next month, has shown frequent bruising on the top of his right hand. The White House has repeatedly attributed this to frequent handshaking and his use of aspirin. Trump has been taking a higher-than-recommended dosage of the drug—325 milligrams daily—for the last 25 years to keep his blood thin, even though his doctors have been advising him to take a lower level.
“I’m a little superstitious,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal in January. “They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart. I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?”
To compensate, Trump takes “about 10 seconds” to apply makeup.
Last July, the White House revealed that Trump suffers from chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition in older people that makes it more difficult for blood to return to the heart from the lower extremities. Swelling in the lower legs and ankles is one symptom.
Trump told the Journal that he once tried compression socks, but didn’t like them. Instead, he said he has tried to avoid sitting for long periods.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but has previously claimed that Trump “is a man of the people and he meets more Americans and shakes their hands on a daily basis than any other President in history.”
