A bruise on the hand of a 79-year-old man wouldn’t normally make headlines, unless that man is Donald Trump, the president who campaigned in 2024 on being sharper, stronger, and healthier than Joe Biden. What began as a curious blotch on his hand has spiraled into months of speculation, with the White House offering shifting explanations that have only deepened doubts about Trump’s health.The bruise that wouldn’t fadeThe saga began on February 24, 2025, when a Getty photographer snapped Trump greeting French President Emmanuel Macron. The close-up revealed a dark bruise smeared with makeup, clumsily concealed but unmistakable. Observers soon realized the mark had been visible as far back as spring 2024, when Trump himself dismissed it as the byproduct of “overzealous handshakes.”“A woman gripped my hand so hard, the Secret Service had to step in,” Trump told the Washington Examiner in 2024. He repeated the story to Time magazine later that year.But as the bruise lingered into 2025, the explanation began to unravel.Makeup, cameras, and awkward excusesBy summer, Trump was regularly spotted with mismatched concealer caked on his hand. A C-SPAN cameraman zoomed in on the blotchy makeup during a July press event, sparking fresh scrutiny. The White House doubled down, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt calling the bruise nothing more than “soft tissue irritation” from endless handshakes and daily aspirin.The ankle twistThen came the curveball. At the FIFA Club World Cup Final in New Jersey on July 13, Trump was photographed with swollen ankles. Days later, the White House abandoned the handshake defense and admitted the president had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), a vascular condition common in older adults that hampers blood flow from the legs to the heart.Trump’s doctor, Sean Barbabella, assured reporters there was “no evidence of heart failure or serious illness.” But crucial details about treatment remain undisclosed, with Leavitt insisting, “You see the president every day, he’s working, he’s moving, he’s continuing.”Experts weigh inNot everyone is convinced the story adds up. Dr Peter Henke, a former chair of the American Heart Association’s vascular council, told New York Magazine that the bruising on Trump’s hand is “unrelated to venous insufficiency.” Instead, Henke suggested, aspirin use could explain the unusual bruising.The White House has not allowed Dr Barbabella to face questions directly, despite earlier promising transparency.
