Left: U.S. President Donald Trump's bruised hand in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst / Right: U.S. President Donald Trump looks at his bruised hand in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
New York Magazine reporter Ben Terris recently sat down with President Donald Trump for nearly an hour to discuss his health. Now, he's saying the unsightly bruise on the back of Trump's hand is apparently getting worse — and that the president is "very self-conscious" about it.
In a Monday interview with The Bulwark's Tim Miller, Terris went into detail about his encounter with Trump in the Oval Office. He told Miller that while he hadn't expected White House physicians to be present during his conversation with the president, he decided to focus the bulk of his questions on Trump's health — which the president and his staffers welcomed.
According to Terris, both White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt both pushed the narrative that the 79 year-old president had never been in better health. Miller suggested that Terris refer to Trump as a "superhuman president," which Terris made into the article's headline in what he called a "tongue-in-cheek" reference. Leavitt urged one of the physicians present in the meeting to repeat their comment to Terris that they thought Trump was in better health than former President Barack Obama — who is 15 years younger than Trump and has a disciplined workout routine.
However, Terris said the key moment that stuck out to him from his sit-down with the president was seeing his bruised hand. Terris conceded that Trump's excessive use of aspirin was the likely culprit for the bruise, as using the drug has been known to cause skin to bruise easily. But the New York Magazine writer went on to tell Miller that Trump's hands looked "gross" up-close and that his hands were unusually "soft" due to a lack of "physical labor over the years."
"But then on the other side, the backside of his hand, it looked kind of like rhino hide," Terris said. "It was very dry. The bruise had kind of taken over the whole back of his hand."
Terris also mentioned that he was president at the Oval Office for the president's meeting with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and that Trump "spent the whole time covering his hand with his other hand so nobody could see it." The president reportedly continued to "look at it like he was checking the time."
"He is very self-conscious about it," Terris said. "In fact, I talked to somebody who had a meeting with Trump and he had a bruise on the back of his hand and he wanted to like, relate with the president about it. He's like, 'look, I got one too.' And Trump shot it down."