Donald Trump has made his first White House appearance in days, wearing heavy makeup to conceal a bruised hand while hiding his swollen ankles, fueling ongoing questions about his health.
Amid growing concern about the 79-year-old’s mortality, the president appeared on Tuesday for the first time in a week, forced to confront rumors that he may have passed away.
“How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?” Fox reporter Peter Doocy asked him, referring to the hashtag “Trump is Dead”, which began trending before the Labor Day holiday.
The president, standing behind a podium with his hand heavily caked in make-up, paused momentarily, before telling reporters he had been “very active” for days, including playing golf, doing an hour-long interview, and meeting people regularly.
“Well, it’s fake news,” he said. “You know, it’s just so fake—that’s why the media has so little credibility.”
Questions about Trump’s health have been rife for weeks, after photos consistently showed the president with bruising on his hands, which the White House insists is the result of his constant hand-shaking.
“This is consistent with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin, which is taken as part of a standard cardiovascular prevention regimen,” Trump’s physician, Sean Barbabella, has said.
“This is a well-known and benign side effect of aspirin therapy.”
The president has also been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition in people over the age of 70, in which the veins of a person’s body have trouble returning blood to the heart.
While the condition isn’t life-threatening, doctors say it gets riskier with age and can be exacerbated by a poor diet.
Trump, who is known to have a penchant for McDonald’s and Diet Coke, was able to hide his ankles during Tuesday’s event by standing behind the podium.
But this weekend the rumour mill went into overdrive after Trump had an extended public absence over the past week, his longest stretch of invisibility since taking office.
Conspiracy theories began popping up on Saturday after photos circulated of the president leaving the White House that looked similar to photos from 2019, prompting speculation the images might had been digitally altered.
One video also surfaced of the presidential motorcade and an ambulance on a D.C. freeway, resulting in some people questioning whether Trump was being rushed to Walter Reed hospital.
Some even pointed to comments made by Vice President JD Vance, in which Vance declared he was “ready” to take over should a “terrible tragedy” occur, which many viewed as confirmation that something was seriously wrong.
However, Trump insists he is fighting fit, and pointed to his predecessor, Joe Biden, who made few public appearances in comparison to him.
“You wouldn’t see him, and nobody ever said there must be something wrong with him,” he told reporters.
“And as we know, that was the greatest shame.”
