President Donald Trump had bruising on both hands that was on full display while he led a signing ceremony for his controversial new “peacekeeping” body.
The 79-year-old president’s unsightly dark marks—which have been regularly reported on by the Daily Beast—were visible Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as Trump unveiled the lineup of his new “Board of Peace.”
World leaders from around 20 countries have accepted invitations to join Trump’s Board of Peace, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Vietnam, and Azerbaijan. Notably, top NATO allies—including Canada and the U.K.—have declined to join the initiative after Trump invited Russian President Vladimir Putin, an accused war criminal who has spent nearly four years bombing Ukraine.
The slight bruise on Trump’s right hand was visible Thursday when he held up a signed founding charter for the group at the Davos event, as well as an even darker one on his left.
But his bruised and frail hands were largely obscured by a presidential lectern as he delivered a low-energy, rambling speech in Davos for the second day in a row.
“This board has the chance to be one of the most consequential bodies ever created, and it’s been an enormous honor to serve as its chairman,” Trump said. “It’s running beautifully, started already, and every country, just about every country, wants to be a part of it,” the president claimed.
“We just sent out the letters a couple of days ago. And these are just the countries that are here, they happen to be in Davos, so we said we would be honored if you wanted to join us on the stage.”
The easily distracted 79-year-old said that those who have joined the Board of Peace are “friends of mine,” before turning his head to double-check while standing silently on stage.
“Yeah, every one of them is a friend of mine. Let’s see, a couple I like, a couple I don’t like. No, I actually like this group, I like every single one of them. Can you believe it? Usually, I have about two or three that I can’t stand,” he said.
For nearly a year, the Daily Beast has been documenting how Trump has appeared in public with mysterious dark bruises on his right hand—sometimes attempting to hide them with blotches of concealer—as well as other concerning signs related to his health and mental acuity.
The White House has tried to explain the bruising by claiming Trump meets “more Americans and shakes their hands on a daily basis than any other President in history,” and said his daily aspirin use is also a factor.
However, Trump was seen with a large, dark bruise on both his hands on Thursday, including on his left hand, which he does not use to shake people’s hands.
Trump, who is on track to become the oldest sitting president in U.S. history, takes aspirin as a blood thinner to treat chronic venous insufficiency, a condition that causes his swollen cankles—another physical issue the president has attempted to shield from public view.
In a striking interview with The Wall Street Journal published earlier this month, Trump said he takes more aspirin than his doctors recommend for “cardiac prevention.”
During the same interview, Trump admitted that his hands are so fragile that one of them bled after Attorney General Pam Bondi nicked him with her ring during a high-five at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July 2024.
He went on to acknowledge that he applies makeup to his hands whenever he gets “whacked” by something. “I have makeup that’s, you know, easy to put on. Takes about 10 seconds,” he said.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
