Donald Trump was photographed waving his bruised hand around while in top spirits in a jovial encounter with top CBS News executives.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung posted a photo on Friday evening of the president gesturing with grinning CBS executives David Reiter, senior vice president of CBS News 24/7, special events and special projects; Tanya Simon, 60 Minutes executive producer; and Draggan Mihailovich, 60 Minutes executive editor. The top of CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss’s head can also be spotted in the snapshot.
“Here are the other 60 Minutes executives who were having a great time with President Trump, laughing at his jokes,” Cheung posted on X.
Cheung posted the image, which showed Trump waving his frequently bruised hand, in response to a report from The Independent about the president and Weiss having a particularly chummy meeting.
Cheung appeared to be defending the president and Weiss’s interaction by sharing the seemingly amicable meeting between Trump and other higher-ups at CBS.
Weiss has been under intense scrutiny since she shelved a 60 Minutes report on the infamous El Salvador megaprison CECOT last month. The Terrorism Confinement Center holds immigrants kicked out of the U.S. by the Trump Administration, and has been widely criticized for reports of torture and abuse. Weiss reportedly yanked it from the air three hours before it was set to air.
The White House did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Trump, 79, has had a recurring bruise on his right hand for months. Meanwhile, his left hand began showing some discoloration in December. While the president has said his hand bruises easily because of the aspirin he takes, many have been concerned over the elderly commander-in-chief’s health.
The White House has previously stated that Trump’s hand bruise was caused by frequent handshakes. The president has taken steps to mask the issue with makeup, although it has only drawn further attention to it.
Trump’s health has not been a top issue under the new era of CBS News. The network has become more amenable to Trump following Weiss’s takeover of CBS News in October 2025.
Network staffers expressed shock at Weiss kissing the president on the cheek upon meeting him. An unnamed reporter at CBS News told The Independent that the move was “wildly inappropriate” and “not a normal news practice.” Another CBS insider defended Weiss, saying that Trump greeted everyone present with cheek kisses. It “wasn’t just Bari that he greeted that way. It was everyone,” the insider said.
In addition to the 60 Minutes report on CECOT, Weiss reportedly also held an Anderson Cooper-led story about the Trump administration refusing to process refugees from South Africa from airing this month. The segment was apparently “all but guaranteed to provoke Trump.”
The new CBS has come under fire for its explicitly “pro-America” direction. CBS Evening News, once the storied home of serious journalists like Walter Cronkite, has suffered a ratings hit following Tony Dokoupil’s takeover of the desk. The anchor has received harsh reviews from viewers. During an interview with Donald Trump, the president mocked Dokoupil’s salary.
Stephen Colbert, CBS’s star late night host, also took aim at Dokoupil and the new reign at CBS. He said that the interview between Dokoupil and Trump was lackluster. Meanwhile, Colbert’s predecessor, David Letterman, called his former network’s news program a “wreck.”
