President Donald Trump kept his extremely bruised right hand mostly out of view during his Cabinet meeting, but he had a few slip-ups where it was on full display.
Trump, 79, largely kept his hands tucked under the table while rambling and taking questions for more than three hours during his gathering at the White House on Tuesday.
The recurring dark bruise on his hand has sparked ongoing questions about the president’s health, which the White House attributes to constant handshaking.
While Trump is right-handed, he even held up a picture on Tuesday with his left hand during his meeting. The press cameras were also stationed mainly on his left side, making it harder to see his right hand.
But when it briefly slipped into view, the large bruise appeared to be covered up again.
The president turned heads on Friday when he slathered a completely mismatched shade of concealer across the top of his hand to cover the bruise as he made stops around D.C.
But on Monday, the president went without makeup. At first, he kept his right hand tucked under his left hand at his desk in the Oval Office, shielding the massive bruise from onlookers.
But the injury, which was hues of deep purple and covered almost the entire top of his hand, was front and center during Trump’s afternoon meeting with the South Korean president.
Attempting to cover the bruise with makeup or keep it away from prying eyes is something Trump has done on numerous occasions, as it has repeatedly shown up since he returned to office.
The White House released a memo from the president’s physician Sean Barbabella last month which claimed the bruise was “consistent with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin.”
However, the White House has dodged making Barbabella available to answer further questions about Trump’s hand as well as the president’s recently diagnosed chronic venous insufficiency (CVI).
The White House revealed the CVI, a common condition with people Trump’s age, after his ankles appeared severely swollen, but it said that he was not making any lifestyle changes or that it required additional treatment.
On Tuesday, the administration released another statement, this time from the president’s former White House physician, Rep. Ronny Jackson, who served during Trump’s first term, rather than his current one.
Jackson declared the 79-year-old the “healthiest president this nation has ever seen.”
The administration touted Trump as being in “excellent” health after his annual physical in April. Barbabella’s memo even mentioned the president’s golf game.
During Trump’s Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. joked that the president was the only person exempt from his and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s fitness challenge, while lavishing praise on the president’s ability on the greens.
