Trump attributes new bruise on hand to aspirin consumption

By Steve Holland, Andrea Shalal and Bo Erickson

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE, Jan 22 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday blamed a noticeable bruise on his left hand to his high intake of aspirin.

The bruise appeared after he bumped a table at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to the U.S. His aspirin dosage makes him bruise easily, Trump said. 

“They say take aspirin if you like your heart, but don’t take aspirin if you don’t want to have a little bruising. I take the big aspirin,” Trump said. 

“The doctor said, ‘You don’t have to take that, sir. You’re very healthy.’ I said, ‘I’m not taking any chances,’” Trump added.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Trump hit his hand on the corner of the signing table during his Board of Peace announcement. 

Four doctors, two surgeons and two internists, who spoke to Reuters agreed it was possible that aspirin contributed to the bruising.

Trump said in a Wall Street Journal interview earlier this month that he takes a larger daily dose of aspirin than his doctors recommend because he wants “nice, thin blood pouring through my heart.” 

Last summer, Leavitt told reporters the hand bruising was from shaking so many hands.

Trump, 79, is the second-oldest person to ever hold the presidency, following his Democratic predecessor President Joe Biden, who dropped his 2024 reelection bid amid questions about his fitness for the job and left office a year ago at 82. 

(Reporting by Steve Holland on Air Force One; additional reporting by Bo Erickson and Andrea Shalal in Washington, and Nancy Lapid in Tucson, Arizona; editing by Sergio Non and Diane Craft)