Trump Accidentally Flashes Puffy Hand in Embarrassing Moment
The president’s tribute turned sour.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Donald Trump tried—and failed—to obscure his battered and bruised hand during a Veterans Day service on Wednesday.
The president, 80, kicked off the holiday by attending a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. But as he put a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and delivered fiery remarks, his right hand soon became the main attraction—slathered in its signature makeup and seemingly swollen.
“A nasty bruise is visible on Trump’s hand as he salutes,” independent journalist Aaron Rupar noted in an X post on Wednesday.
A “nasty bruise is visible on Trump's hand as he salutes,” Rupar noted.
Aaron Rupar/X
The president’s hand appeared to be puffy.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
At one point during the ceremony, Vice President JD Vance and others onstage bent their hands in prayer. Trump, meanwhile, seemingly self-consciously covered his swollen hand with the other and scanned the crowd with his eyes.
This isn’t the first time Trump’s bruised and battered hand has been on display. The White House has claimed the bruising on Trump’s hand is due to frequent handshaking and his aspirin dosage, which has been a higher-than-recommended amount—325 milligrams daily—for the last 25 years.
The White House has previously claimed that 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.”
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He also suffers from chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition in older people that makes it more difficult for blood to return to the heart from the lower extremities, the White House revealed last July. Swelling in the lower legs and ankles is one symptom Trump has often shown.
Donald Trump’s ankles have appeared swollen in numerous meetings with world leaders in the Oval Office.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Reuters
Trump acknowledged that he once tried compression socks, but didn’t like them. Instead, he said he has tried to avoid sitting for long periods.
The president has had a well-documented history of nodding off at events similar to the one he attended Wednesday morning, most recently a 9/11 memorial service at the Pentagon.
Not only did Donald Trump struggle to keep his eyes open, but he also suffered from a noticeably droopy face at the 9/11 event.
Finn Gomez/Getty Images
But the oldest president to be inaugurated appeared fired up on Wednesday, making a point of shouting out his embattled secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, who was also in attendance and narrowly avoided being impeached Tuesday night. Trump emphasized that the former Fox & Friends Weekend co-host was doing a “fantastic job.”
The president apparently battled health issues long before he entered his golden years. He famously avoided military service due to supposed bone spurs. All told, Trump received five deferments during the Vietnam War—four for education, and the fifth for a disputed bone spur diagnosis.
“I can be very military,” the president once declared in 2013.
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