Donald Trump appeared visibly uneasy as he exited the Marine One helicopter amid fresh health concerns surrounding the 79-year-old.
The president used both hands to grip the banisters for dear life as he climbed down the small flight of stairs from the aircraft upon his return to the White House after his embarrassing appearance in Davos, Switzerland.
Trump’s hands had already sparked alarm while he spoke at the World Economic Forum. While he has frequently appeared in public with mysterious bruises on his right hand—as widely documented by the Daily Beast—Trump spoke at Davos on Thursday with a horrific, dark, and painful-looking mark on his left hand.
The White House has frequently tried to blame Trump’s bruises on him shaking people’s hands on a “daily basis,” along with his daily aspirin intake. However, Trump is right-handed, so that does not explain how he sustained such a large bruise on his left hand.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt quickly scrambled to offer an explanation for why the president is now getting bruises on both hands.
“At the Board of Peace event today in Davos, President Trump hit his hand on the corner of the signing table, causing it to bruise,” Leavitt told the Daily Beast.
A White House official added that the 79-year-old president and his physicians have previously noted that Trump is “susceptible” to hand bruising due to his daily aspirin use. The president takes the blood thinner to treat chronic venous insufficiency, a condition that causes his swollen cankles.
While being pressed by reporters aboard Air Force One about his hand, Trump also claimed the bruising was caused when he “clipped” it on a table.
“So I put a little, what do they call it? Cream on it. But I clipped it. I would say take aspirin if you like your heart, but don’t take aspirin if you don’t want to have a little bruising,” Trump said. “I take the big aspirin, and when you take the big aspirin, they tell you, you bruise.
“The doctor said, you don’t have to take that, sir. You’re very healthy. I said, ‘I’m not taking any chances.’ So anyway, that’s one of the side effects of taking aspirin.”
Trump was also seen descending from Air Force One with extreme caution, using his left hand for balance, after landing back in the U.S. before continuing his journey to the White House aboard Marine One.
The Daily Beast has routinely documented health concerns surrounding Trump, who is on course to become the oldest sitting president in U.S. history.
This includes monitoring the bruises on his hands, which the president attempts to conceal with blotches of mismatched makeup.
There are also growing concerns about Trump’s apparent cognitive decline, which was again on display at Davos. During his rambling and low-energy speech on Wednesday, Trump repeatedly referred to Greenland as “Iceland,” mistaking the territory he has repeatedly threatened to invade for a different European nation located hundreds of miles away.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
