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Kai Trump, President Donald Trump’s 18-year-old granddaughter, has inadvertently added to the intrigue surrounding the bruises spotted on the commander-in-chief’s hands with her latest Instagram post.
Celebrating the first anniversary of her YouTube channel, the golfing teen posted a series of 16 images from the last 12 months on the platform on Wednesday with the caption: “One year ago, I started my YouTube channel not knowing what to expect… and it’s turned into something so special.
“From the [behind the scenes videos] of the election, trips with my best friends, starting senior year, and golfing with Grandpa, I love sharing my life with all of you. Thank you for every comment, like, and view – you’ve made this first year unforgettable. There’s so much more to come.”
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President Donald Trump and his granddaughter Kai Trump pictured at the White House on Election Night in November 2024 (Kai Trump/Instagram)
The president, 79, appears beside her in four of the shots, most notably in one taken of them together at his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, on Election Night, in which the elder Trump appears to be sporting foundation on the back of his right hand, possibly concealing a bruise or blemish.
The marks on Trump’s hands were noticed by pundits only after he beat Democrat Kamala Harris in last year’s race for the White House. Still, his entrepreneurial granddaughter’s photo suggests the problem may predate that.
The Independent has reached out to the White House for comment.
The president himself first addressed the dark bruises in an interview with Time magazine last December, when he said the problem had arisen “from shaking hands with thousands of people.”
He was seen with alarming red sores on his fingers and palms in January, and the bruising has been remarked upon many times since, with Trump not always taking the trouble to hide it with concealer.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and the president’s personal physician, Dr Sean Barbabella, have subsequently insisted that Trump is in “excellent health” and repeated the handshaking explanation while also attributing it to his consumption of aspirin.
“This 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,” Dr Barbabella said in an official memo in July. “This is a well-known and benign side effect of aspirin therapy.”
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A bruise is seen on Trump’s hand during a White House meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on August 25 2025 (Reuters)
Trump also revealed this summer that he has been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, which means he experiences swelling in his lower extremities as the veins in his legs ineffectively pump blood back up toward his heart.
Those answers have not satisfied some online, however, who continue to speculate that the president may be receiving undisclosed medical treatment through an IV drip or that doctors may be conducting frequent tests on him, such as blood withdrawals.
Their feverish interest in Trump’s well-being also led to a wild conspiracy theory that he had died and it had been covered up, Stalin-style, over the Labor Day weekend – but there is some basis for doubting the official word on his health.
Trump’s doctor for 35 years before his first term, Dr Harold Bornstein, for instance, insisted he was the “healthiest person ever elected to the presidency” in an open letter in 2016, only to confess two years later that the patient had dictated it himself. “I didn’t write that letter,” Dr Bornstein revealed. “I just made it up as I went along.”
It has also subsequently emerged that the president was much sicker when he contracted Covid-19 in October 2020 than the public was told at the time and that he required treatment for low blood oxygen levels, high fever, and lung problems during his recuperation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Maryland.
