Between the Pearl Harbor joke, the swollen ankles, and the bruised hand covered in mismatched concealer, Thursday’s White House state dinner for Japan’s Prime Minister was quite the evening.
AFP photographer Jim Watson made sure nobody missed it. Trump’s severely bruised and discolored right hand was clearly visible throughout, the concealer applied heavily enough to notice but not quite enough to work. Even his left hand, usually the cleaner of the two, appeared off-color.
The bruising is not new, and Trump has never hidden the reason. He takes 325 milligrams of aspirin daily, four times the standard 81 milligram dose. “They’d rather have me take the smaller one,” he told the Wall Street Journal in January. “I take the larger one, but I’ve done it for years, and what it does do is it causes bruising.”
He also handles the concealment himself. “I have makeup that’s easy to put on, takes about 10 seconds,” he said. When he welcomed Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Tuesday, the concealer was reportedly closer in color to his gold photo frames than his actual skin tone.
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The bruised hand was not the only thing cameras caught. Photos from the earlier Oval Office meeting with Takaichi showed Trump’s ankles notably rounder when set against the slimmer ankles of officials seated beside him, including JD Vance, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth.
The White House publicly disclosed in July 2025 that Trump had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a condition in which the veins in the lower legs have trouble pushing blood back up to the heart. The diagnosis came after he was examined for leg swelling, and officials said he had tried wearing compression socks but “didn’t like them.”
Trump himself insists he feels fine. “I feel great. I mean, physically and mentally, I feel like I did 50 years ago,” he told NBC News last month. “It’s crazy.” He did add one caveat: “Now, there’ll be a time when I won’t be able to give you that answer. But that time hasn’t come, you know.” The White House has maintained throughout that he is in excellent health.
The dinner itself drew about 70 guests to the State Dining Room, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, seated around tables covered in golden cloths with golden cutlery. Takaichi called Trump and herself “the best buddies” to build a stronger alliance and declared at the dinner: “Japan is back.” Trump called her “an amazing person” and a “great friend and partner.”
Thursday’s meeting was designed to strengthen the U.S.-Japan alliance and press Takaichi into committing Japanese warships to the Strait of Hormuz. It also produced the Pearl Harbor moment.
Asked why Asian allies received no warning before the Iran strikes, Trump said: “You don’t want to signal too much. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?”
Featured image via X screengrab
