President Donald Trump took his cankles and bruised hand out for a spin on Wednesday during a rally in Kentucky that featured an appearance by MAGA-friendly boxer and influencer Jake Paul.
Paul, who spoke on stage at the rally about the importance of having courage and “swag,” interviewed the president backstage and shared a photo of their conversation.
“Amazing day with @realDonaldTrump @POTUS full interview coming soon,” Paul wrote on X, attaching a photo of himself and the president sitting down in which the president’s swollen ankles could be seen.
During the rally, Trump seemingly endorsed Paul for office should he choose to run in the future, announcing to the 29-year-old and the attendees, “I’m going to make a prediction that you will be, in the not too distant future, running for political office. And you have my complete and total endorsement!”
Paul is a former Disney Channel star-turned-internet personality-turned-boxer who is one of the highest-paid creators on YouTube. He has been involved in a number of controversies and in 2021 was accused of sexual misconduct, a claim he denied.
Trump’s cankles were also spotted after adviser Alex Bruesewitz—who recently claimed to have funded a private plane to evacuate himself and seven other stranded Americans, including Democrats, from the Middle East while the State Department left other Americans to fend for themselves—also posted a photo taken backstage at the event that featured himself and the president alongside Paul and Paul’s business partner Geoffrey Woo.
“With the boys,” read the caption.
Also on display during the event was the bruising on the back of the president’s hand, which the White House has previously claimed is the result of aspirin usage and the fact that the president meets “more Americans and shakes their hands on a daily basis than any other President in history.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
The president’s cankles and bruised hands have been an ever-present concern since his return to the White House, contributing to growing concerns about his fitness for office as the 79-year-old delivers lengthy, rambling addresses and repeatedly dozes off in meetings.
His swollen ankles were also visible during a meeting in the Oval Office earlier this month with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Swollen ankles are a common symptom of chronic venous insufficiency, with which the president was diagnosed in July 2025.
Trump confirmed to the Wall Street Journal in a January interview that he briefly wore compression socks to help treat the condition, but that he ultimately stopped after a while because he “didn’t like them.”
Bruising on the president’s hand has also been present for months, although it is often covered up with poorly-applied makeup in the wrong shade.
A particularly nasty bruise was visible on his “good hand”–his left, which does not normally feature bruising—at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, having seemingly developed rapidly after he injured it during the event.
When contacted by the Daily Beast for comment at the time, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, “At the Board of Peace event today in Davos, President Trump hit his hand on the corner of the signing table, causing it to bruise.”
In addition to his physical ailments, medical experts have become more concerned that the president is displaying other signs of potentially serious medical conditions, including cognitive decline.
NBC News medical analyst Dr. Vin Gupta said in February that he was seeing a “trend line” with the president’s cognitive abilities and that, “it seems like it’s getting worse.” He also referenced the president’s family history with cognitive concerns, referring to his father who died of pneumonia, complicated by Alzheimer’s disease.
“The acting out, behavior changes, lashing out, acting unreasonable,” Gupta said. “One could say this is his core fundamental personality based on what we’ve seen over, frankly, his entire adult life, but it’s getting worse.”
