Questions have been raised over President Donald Trump’s wellbeing after what looked like a bruise was spotted on the back of his right hand.
Zoomed-in photos of the 78-year-old’s clasped hands during a Monday meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron revealed what appeared to be a makeup-covered bruise.
“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. His commitment is unwavering and he proves that every single day,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Independent in a statement.
But others on X speculated about what could have caused the bruising.
Some X users attributed the markings to an IV, others believed he could be on blood thinning medications, and others still thought it could just be from aging.
One X user remarked: “To be fair my grandma also has bruises on her hands at age 79 and has had them for years. It’s just something that happens when you’re old and trump is OLD.”
“He is constantly bruised up. This is karma for him making fun of an aging Joe Biden,” another said.
Some even compared his hand to those of the late Queen Elizabeth II, who died in 2022 aged 96.
One user joked that his ego bruises “easily”: “Trump is a few months shy of being 80 and is technically ‘elderly’…. But that’s not the only reason he has a big bruise on his hand… he’s very thin skinned … susceptible to bruising easily when criticized.” The user added: “It’s also possible he’s on blood thinner medication.”
Another quipped: “Looks like he had one of his handshaking competitions with Macron.”
The world leaders have a history of strange handshakes, or what the commentator Piers Morgan once called “Trump-Macron arm-wrestles.”
Another thought there was a link to the French president’s visit: “That would be Macron’s rap on the knuckles when he told Trump off for lying.”
During the pair’s meeting, Trump claimed that Europe was only “loaning” money to Ukraine in its efforts to fight the war against Russia. But Macron stepped in to correct him. Placing his hand on Trump’s arm, he said: “No, in fact, to be frank, we paid 60 percent of the total effort and it was – like the US – loans, guarantees, grants. We provided real money, to be clear.”
This is far from the first time Trump’s wellbeing has been under scrutiny. The oldest-ever inaugurated president said in August he would “gladly” release his medical records to the public, but never did on the campaign trail.
The health of presidents has become a political issue in recent years, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic when Trump reportedly tested positive for the virus in September 2020, just three days before attending a presidential debate against Joe Biden, raising questions about what his physicians were sharing publicly about his health.
Following his treatment at Walter Reed Medical Center, there were again questions over how forthcoming his physicians had been. According to a New York Times report, the then-president had experienced “extremely depressed blood oxygen levels” and officials feared that he was on the verge of being put on a ventilator.
Trump’s team did not comment on those reports at the time, but sources close to the former president denied he was ever seriously ill.
As president, Biden’s health was also under scrutiny. A persistent cough and a stiffened gait highlighted his age, while there were also questions over his mental fitness. Eventually, after he stumbled in his debate against Trump last July, concerns over his mental capacities and ability to serve a second term led to him stepping down from the Democratic ticket.
When Trump first entered the race for the presidency in 2015, Dr. Harold Bornstein wrote a letter touting his patient’s health: “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” Years later, Bornstein confessed to CNN that those words were not his own: “He dictated that whole letter. I didn’t write that letter,” Bornstein told CNN. “I just made it up as I went along.”
