Clues about Donald Trump’s health were in his granddaughter’s YouTube vlogs all along.
Kai Trump, 18, unintentionally revealed through an Instagram post on Wednesday that Trump has been nursing a bruised hand since November, before he even returned to the White House.
“One year ago, I started my YouTube channel not knowing what to expect… and it’s turned into something so special,” the president’s eldest granddaughter wrote in a post commemorating the anniversary of her YouTube journey.
The 16-slide carousel included a photo of her and Trump that she first posted on election night last year.
Kai’s election night vlog showed that the photo was taken in Mar-a-Lago, where Trump held a watch party as results trickled in.
But a key detail that slipped through the cracks last year was the makeup slathered on top of Trump’s right hand as he posed for a photo next to his granddaughter.
Trump first addressed the bruising on his hand in a December 2024 interview with TIME magazine, when he explained simply that “it’s from shaking hands with thousands of people.”
The mismatched makeup has since become a fixture in Trump’s myriad public appearances, generating wild speculations about the state of his health at his advanced age of 79.
The White House began parroting Trump’s explanation for the bruising in February, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt telling NBC News at the time that the president “has bruises on his hand because he’s constantly working and shaking hands all day every day.”
In July, the White House published a memo from Trump’s physician Sean Barbabella indicating that the bruising was “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.”
“This is a well-known and benign side effect of aspirin therapy,” Barbabella wrote.
The same memo revealed that Trump’s swollen ankles—another part of his body that has raised health concerns—were caused by chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition where veins struggle to push blood back to the heart.
The White House claims Donald Trump’s bruises are the result of rigorous handshaking by the president. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Psychologists and political foes alike have also floated the possibility that Trump has dementia, following multiple mental flubs, including forgetting his own inauguration year and the name of the Homeland Security secretary he appointed.
“We have to see a major deterioration in functioning in language and thinking and psychomotor performance and impulse control and a whole variety of areas… There are times when he’s really unable to complete a thought. Sometimes he’s unable to complete a word,” Dr. John Gartner told the Daily Beast Podcast.
The president’s swollen ankles have made multiple appearances. Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
Despite the hand bruises, cankles, and multiple mental flubs, however, the White House has repeatedly insisted that all is well with Trump.
“President Donald J. Trump remains in exceptional health, exhibiting strong cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological, and physical performance,” Barbabella said in an October medical report.
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday.
