Viral claims about Trump’s bruised hand assessed by medical experts
Thomas Copeland
BBC Verify Live journalist
You might have spotted photographs on your social media feed showing bruising on the back of US President Donald Trump’s right hand.
After a meeting between Trump and the president of South Korea in which the bruising was caught on camera, claims about Trump’s health have gathered tens of millions of views across X, TikTok and Facebook, with people speculating that the bruising is a result of an intravenous drip or the president had suffered a stroke.
Even California Governor Gavin Newsom made a veiled reference to the viral debate
in a social media post yesterday, external.
Image source,Getty Images
So what’s really going on here? We’ve gathered together the statements from the White House, pictures of the president’s hands and some of the viral claims and put them to four vascular experts:
- Prof Alun Davies of Imperial College London
- Paritosh Sharma, consultant vascular surgeon
- Philip Coleridge-Smith, medical director of the British Vein Institute
- Prof Stephen Black of King's College London
The president’s physician Capt Sean Barbabella issued a memo, external in July revealing that Trump has a medical condition called chronic venous insufficiency.
It occurs when veins in the legs don't allow blood to flow back up to the heart, causing it to pool and swell in the lower limbs, and is a common and benign result of vein valves weakening as people age.
At the end of the memo, Barbabella said the bruising on the back of Trump's hand “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.”
Three of the experts we asked said the bruising was likely a result of aspirin use combined with a minor hand injury.
While Mr Sharma suggested that it was possible this minor injury was caused from frequent handshaking, others thought this was unlikely.
Three of the experts said the insertion of an intravenous drip could possibly explain the bruising, but Mr Coleridge-Smith added an IV would likely be administered further up the arm.
As for the claim that Trump has suffered a stroke - all four experts said there was no evidence for this.
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