When it comes to Donald Trump’s bruised hands, the cover-up might be drawing more attention than the bruises themselves. A leading Hollywood makeup artist is now calling out whoever is behind the job. According to her, the results are sloppy.
Trump, 79, has been showing up with dark purple marks on his hands. His doctor brushed it off as nothing serious. The claim it is just the result of too many handshakes was made worse by the fact that Trump takes aspirin. But instead of letting the bruises show, someone has clearly been trying to hide them with makeup.
Trump’s Hand Bruising Sparks Health Speculation Again
A dark bruise on President Donald Trump’s hand, spotted during recent Oval Office meetings, has once again stirred speculation about his health. The White House explained the mark as a result of frequent handshaking combined… pic.twitter.com/QRjNJ7BsqS
— J.O. Comms (@jo_comms) August 26, 2025
Brandi Boulet, a Canadian makeup artist who worked with Sebastian Stan on The Apprentice, the 2024 movie where he played a young Trump, noticed this thing. She had spent months studying old photos and videos of Trump to nail down the exact texture of his skin, the veins, and that orange tan. She states that the cover-up attempts were amateur hour.
“How can you be in that position and not have somebody be able to cover a bruise?” Boulet asked. “It looks like somebody just mashed on some foundation.”
She explained that proper coverage isn’t about smearing on one shade. “You’re using the color wheel,” she said. “You’re using an opposite color to cancel it out.” Real skin, she added, isn’t flat. “Skin is not just one color. There’s undertones. You can see blues in there from veins. You can see red from the capillaries. You also have beauty marks. So it’s a matter of layering in a way that matches what you’ve just covered to what the rest of your skin looks like, instead of just doing a circle of one color.”
The timeline of Trump’s hand makeup mishaps has always been visible. On September 2, he tried to hide a bruise while announcing that U.S. Space Command would relocate to Alabama. The next day, when he was greeting Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki, it looked like he had makeup on his hand again. Back in August, the issue looked more obvious. During a White House meeting, pale foundation was caked across his right hand. It was so much so that Trump himself covered with his left. When he held up the World Cup trophy later that month, he kept his right hand low.
By August 26, during a cabinet meeting, the poor blended concealer couldn’t go unnoticed at all. Social media lit up for the obvious reasons. “Looks like Donald Trump hired a new makeup artist for his hand today. Still looking pretty gnarly,” one user wrote. Another comment read, “It’s makeup. It covers elderly hand-bruising. Trump always wears makeup covering that on his hand now.”
Trump’s hands are covered by makeup in new photos from his press conference. pic.twitter.com/7RyQqD8wG2
— FactPost (@factpostnews) September 2, 2025
The White House tried to clear things up earlier in the summer. In July, Trump’s physician, Sean Barbabella, revealed that the president has chronic venous insufficiency. In this condition the veins in the legs struggle to pump blood back to the heart. He called it “benign and common” for people over 70. He explained that there were no signs of clots or arterial disease.
Barbabella also mentioned that Trump’s daily aspirin use makes bruising easier. He described the marks as “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.” The doctor further noted that bruising is a “well-known and benign side effect of aspirin therapy.”
