President Donald Trump’s right hand, visibly bruised and coated with makeup, drew attention on March 19 as he welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to the White House. The discoloration was impossible to miss despite apparent attempts to conceal it.
Donald Trump’s bruised hand appears during White House dinner
Donald Trump hosted Sanae Takaichi for a formal state dinner in the White House’s State Dining Room. The event was Takaichi’s first visit to Washington since she became Japan’s first female prime minister last October. Amid this, photographers got clear images of the president’s hand during the evening.
AFP photographer Jim Watson documented the extent of the bruising on the 79-year-old president’s hand. The marks showed through what appeared to be a heavy layer of concealer. Even Trump’s left hand, typically less affected, showed some discoloration. This wasn’t the first time this week the issue surfaced. On March 16, a brown bruise appeared on Donald Trump’s left hand during a lunch with Kennedy Center board members in the East Room (via The Daily Beast).
The president addressed the bruising publicly in January during an interview with The Wall Street Journal. He explained that it results from his daily aspirin regimen. The president takes 325 milligrams of aspirin each day, while doctors typically recommend 81 milligrams.
“They’d rather have me take the smaller one,” Trump stated. “I take the larger one, but I’ve done it for years, and what it does do is it causes bruising.” Trump also confirmed he applies his own concealer. “I have makeup that’s, you know, easy to put on, takes about 10 seconds,” he said.
Trump’s bruised hand aside, the meeting with Takaichi was to strengthen the U.S.-Japan alliance. During the meeting, a reporter asked why Trump didn’t warn Asian allies before planning military action against Iran. “You don’t want to signal too much, you know?” the president responded. “Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Okay, why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor? You believe in surprise, I think much more so than us.”
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on Mandatory.
