President Donald Trump opted to cover up the incredibly prominent bruising on his hands that was spotted during his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos for his return flight to the U.S.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday, makeup could be seen covering up bruising on both the president’s right and left hands. Earlier in the day, when he appeared onstage at Davos to unveil the lineup of his “Board of Peace” for Gaza, an aggressively dark bruise could be seen on the back of his left hand.
The president told reporters during the flight that the bruises were the result of him hitting his hand during the Board of Peace event. “I clipped them on a table, so I put a little, what do they call it, the cream on it. But I clipped it,” he said.
“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. If you take the big, I take the big aspirin. And when you take the big aspirin, the doctor said, you don’t have to take that, sir, you’re very healthy. I said, I’m not taking any chances. That’s one of the side effects of taking aspirin.”
When asked if he was OK, he replied, “Very good.” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt explained that the president hit his hand on the corner of the signing table, causing it to bruise.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, cardiologist to the late former Vice President Dick Cheney, argued on X that the president’s explanation for his bruising made no sense.
“Why would you continue to take a higher dose of aspirin than your doctor recommends if you’re bruising excessively?” Reiner wrote on X. “Makes no sense.”
Trump’s doctor, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month that the president takes 325 milligrams of aspirin a day—a much higher dose than the recommended low-dose of 81mg recommended for heart health.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told the Daily Beast in a statement, “The President answered this question on Air Force One – you would think a so-called ‘doctor’ would have better listening skills.”
“Unfortunately, extreme cases of Trump Derangement Syndrome have severe side effects, such as loss of common sense, for liberal activists like Jonathan Reiner. President Trump’s excellent doctors have repeatedly affirmed that he is in perfect health.”
The president has been consistenty spotted with bruising on the backs of his hands, or makeup to cover up the bruises, over the year since he started his second term in office.
The White House has previously claimed that the bruising on Trump’s hands, which he often covers with makeup, is caused by a combination of aspirin usage that makes him more susceptible to bruising, and frequent vigorous handshaking.
“President 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,” Leavitt has repeatedly insisted when asked about the bruises.
Concerns regarding the president’s health have been mounting since he returned to the White House. The Daily Beast has meticulously documented the president’s growing list of health concerns, including his bruised hands and swollen ankles, as well the bizarre explanations he has offered for why he underwent an MRI and why he has been required to take multiple tests assessing his cognitive abilities.
“In addition to the Medical [assessments], I have done something that no other President has done,” he wrote in a lengthy Truth Social rant last month, ”on three separate occasions, the last one being recently, by taking what is known as a Cognitive Examination, something which few people would be able to do very well, including those working at The New York Times, and I ACED all three of them in front of large numbers of doctors and experts, most of whom I do not know.”
Far from proving his mental fitness, the president’s boast instead worried medical professionals, who argued that taking the tests multiple times suggests he is being monitored, rather than assessed, for dementia.
“You could maybe justify giving someone the MoCA once, just on their age, just as part of a physical. If you’re giving it to him three times, that means you’re not assessing dementia. That means you’re monitoring dementia,” Psychologist Dr. John Gartner told the Daily Beast Podcast last year.
