Trump’s health fuels speculation as photo reveals newly 'disfigured' hand

US President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media as he departs the White House en route to Kansas, in Washington, DC, US, October 19, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

On Monday a photograph revealed President Donald Trump to have fresh bruises on his right hand. While the public remains in the dark as to why, one journalist speculates that Trump's brain may be addled by anything from aspirin to a stroke, at least according to one prominent journalist.

"The forthcoming midterm elections are a referendum on President Donald Trump’s policies, not his health," wrote The New Republic's Timothy Noah on Monday. "But when those policies include renaming the Atlantic 'Trump Ocean,' or affecting indifference about whether Iran might 'take out' Los Angeles or San Diego, or prohibiting nominees for executive branch positions from saying out loud, 'Joe Biden won the 2020 election,' that changes the equation. With directives like these emanating from the White House, it’s everybody’s civic duty to consider whether its occupant is a well man."

After speculating that Trump dyes his hair and either sprays or slathers his face, Noah went on to the most important part of Trump's body, as far as the American public is concerned — his brain.

"This is of course the principal area of concern. I reviewed serious reasons for worry in some detail last month ('Why Trump May Not Serve Out His Presidency')," Noah wrote. "To summarize: STAT News reported nine years ago that neurolinguistics and cognition experts comparing old videos of Trump with more recent ones observed deterioration in the complexity of Trump’s unscripted public utterances."

He added, "Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley compared Trump’s 2016 rhetorical style to 'a monkey with a machinegun.' (That’s not a medical opinion, but it’s very good.) Groups of mental health experts again declared in 2024 that Trump displayed signs of cognitive decline, and 18 months later that he’d 'deteriorated even further.' Trump falls asleep a lot during White House meetings. He says crazy stuff all the time. The latest expert to note this is Trump himself. At a MAGA rally in Clarksville, Tennessee, earlier this month, Trump said, 'I could say the stupidest things, and you’d clap me.'"

In a piece that also explores (sometimes humorously) Trump's right ear, right hand, belly, backside, legs and ankles, Noah also hit upon observations about Trump's heart and hands that could explain the recent bruising.

"So far as we know it’s in decent shape; we don’t know why Trump’s doctors last year felt it necessary to do a CT scan of it," Noah wrote of Trump's heart. "Trump takes two drugs, rosuvastatin and ezetimibe, to manage his cholesterol, which as a result is within normal range. Trump takes Bayer aspirin daily to reduce the risk of a heart attack. But for some bizarre reason his favored dose is 325 milligrams, which his doctors have repeatedly told him is about four times too much. A dose that high increases Trump’s risk of gastrointestinal bleeding. Trump’s doctors want him to drop down to 81 milligrams, but he refuses to do that. Is our teetotaling commander in chief an aspirin junkie, like the murderer Perry Smith in In Cold Blood? We can’t rule it out. Aspirin-use disorder is, according to one 2019 study, 'an underreported condition.'"

Then there are the hands. His left hand recently appeared to have bruising; per journalist Aaron Rupar on Monday, "this picture from moments ago is of Trump's LEFT hand — not the one that is usually disfigured."

Regarding that Noah added, "We’ve seen weird bruising on Trump’s right hand for well over a year now. Sometimes he covers it up with makeup, but you can still see it. The White House said it was from shaking hands, but then the condition spread to Trump’s left hand. This may indicate circulation problems. The White House said that the underlying cause was Trump’s overconsumption of aspirin, which is plausible. But if Trump refuses to cut back on his daily 325 Bayer milligrams even as it turns his hands purple, that strengthens the hypothesis that Trump is hooked on aspirin."

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