President Trump has claimed in a new interview that frequent bruising on his hands is due to him taking more aspirin than his doctors recommend, a habit he claims to have engaged in for 25 years because “I’m a little superstitious.”
Trump, 79, also told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Thursday that he regrets undergoing an advanced imaging scan as part of an October checkup at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center because it gave critics “a little ammunition” to question his health.
“I would have been a lot better off if they didn’t, because the fact that I took it said, ‘Oh gee, is something wrong?’” the president said. “Well, nothing’s wrong.”
President Trump claims that frequent bruising on his hands is due to him taking more aspirin than his doctors recommend. AFP via Getty ImagesIf Trump serves out his full four-year term, he would leave the presidency in January 2029 as the oldest man ever to hold that office — narrowly beating the record established by his predecessor, Joe Biden, who ended his bid for a second term in the summer of 2024 amid evidence of severe cognitive decline.
Throughout the first year of Trump’s second term, speculation has grown about his physical condition, triggered in large part by photos of dark bruises on his hands, which the White House has blamed on vigorous hand-shaking in addition to his aspirin regime.
White House physician Dr. Sean Barbabella told the Journal that Trump takes a standard dose of 325 milligrams of aspirin per day, though the president acknowledged his physicians would “rather have me take the smaller one. I take the larger one, but I’ve done it for years, and what it does do, is it causes bruising.”
“The smaller one” likely refers to baby aspirin, which contains just 81 milligrams of the active ingredient — roughly a quarter of what’s in Trump’s current dose.
“They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart,” Trump added. “I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?”
The president also confirmed to the WSJ that future Attorney General Pam Bondi made his hand bleed when she clipped him with her ring while giving a high-five during the Republican National Convention in July 2024.
“The ring hit the back of my hand, and, yes, there was a slight little cut,” said Trump, adding that he uses makeup that’s “easy to put on, takes about 10 seconds” to conceal cuts and bruises.
The chatter has also been triggered by instances of the president appearing to doze off during meetings and the Journal reported that allies and friends of Trump have to raise their voices in meetings as he strains to hear them. The president denied both claims in the interview published Thursday.
“Sometimes they’ll take a picture of me blinking, blinking, and they’ll catch me with the blink,” Trump said of the shut-eye snaps.
Official reports from Barbabella have described Trump as being in “excellent overall health,” with the president himself crediting his “very good genetics.”
“Let’s talk about health again for the 25th time,” the Journal quoted an exasperated Trump as saying at the start of the interview. “My health is perfect.”
Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, vouched for Trump’s capabilities to the Journal, saying: “As a clinician, you look for clues in people, even if they’re not your patient, and he is just with it on some fairly complex topics.
“I can’t even think of a single time where he said something where I don’t think he understands the issue here,” added Oz. “He may want you to do something that is, you know, is arguable whether it’s the right path to go, but it’s a very rational approach to it.”
In July, the White House acknowledged that Trump has been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a blood circulation issue that has caused swelling in his lower legs.
The president acknowledged that he had tried to wear compression socks to help treat the condition, but later stopped because “I didn’t like them.”
Chatter about Trump’s health accelerated again after the Oct. 10 visit to Walter Reed, which included what the president initially described as a MRI, but which he and Barbabella clarified to the Journal was a CT scan.
“It wasn’t an MRI,” the president said. “It was less than that. It was a scan.”
The imaging was not publicly disclosed by the White House until Trump revealed it to journalists more than two weeks later while on an official trip through Asia.
In a statement after the Journal article was published, Barbabella said Trump had initially gone to Walter Reed to meet with hospital staff and wounded service members.
“In order to make the most of the President’s time at the hospital, we recommended he undergo another routine physical evaulation to ensure continued optimal health,” the doctor said. “As part of that examination, we asked the President if he would undergo advanced imaging — either an MRI or CT Scan — to definitively rule out any cardiovascular issues.
“The President agreed, and our team of consultants performed a CT Scan. As we revealed in the post-examination report, the advanced imaging was perfectly normal and revealed absolutely no abnormalities.”
In a separate statement, Barbabella claimed Trump’s “cardiovascular health puts him 14 years younger than his age. Overall, the President remains in exceptional health and perfectly suited to execute his duties as Commander in Chief.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt added Thursday: “The President’s physicians and the White House have always maintained the President received advanced imaging. Additional details on the imaging have been disclosed by the President himself, because he continues to be the most transparent and open president in history and has nothing to hide, unlike his predecessor Joe Biden, who hid from the press and lied about his clear physical and mental decline.”
