President Donald Trump’s ankles were once again bursting at the seams as he welcomed another world leader to the White House on Thursday.
Trump, 79, sat down with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in the Oval Office and took questions from reporters on a variety of issues, including the war in Iran, rapidly rising oil prices, and the Strait of Hormuz.
Photos from the meeting captured the prominent swelling of Trump’s cankles, which were notably rounder when juxtaposed with the slimmer ankles of the officials next to him, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Last summer, the White House disclosed that Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition where leg veins struggle to push blood back up to the heart.
The cankle-stricken president revealed in a surprisingly candid interview with the Wall Street Journal in January that he once tried to use compression socks to contain the swelling, but he “didn’t like them.” Instead, he has been getting up from his desk and walking around more often to address the cankles.
Trump’s bulbous ankles were last seen just two days ago, when he hosted Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in the White House.
When reached for comment on the latest cankle sighting, the White House issued its boilerplate response that hails Trump as “the sharpest, most accessible, and energetic president in modern American history” while attacking the Daily Beast.
“The only thing swollen is Julia Ornedo’s stupidity that will prevent her from working for a legitimate news outlet,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said. Ingle, 31, got his bachelor’s degree in communications and master’s degree in business administration from Southeastern University, where his father, Kent Ingle, is president. The Florida-based institution boasts that more than two-thirds of its students attend online or through extension courses at 200 “partner sites,” which do not have to be accredited.
Trump, the oldest person to be inaugurated U.S. president, has long generated speculations about the state of his health thanks to his swollen ankles, bruised hands, mental flubs, and public displays of drowsiness.
The White House has consistently maintained that he is in “excellent” health. Trump himself once insisted that he feels 29.
“I feel great. I mean, physically and mentally, I feel like I did 50 years ago,” the president told NBC News last month. “It’s crazy.”
“Now, there’ll be a time when I won’t be able to give you that answer. But that time hasn’t come, you know.”
