Former president Donald Trump was pictured on January 17th, waving to an enthusiastic audience and striking a trademark posture while leaving Trump Tower. However, there was one noticeable change: bright red patches covered his palm and fingers. As per The Independent , since then, the phrase “Trump bumps” notoriously gained popularity on X as people try to figure out what might be causing it—anything from ketchup to golf wounds to medical issues. As per The Hill , the 2024 GOP frontrunner recently clarified the viral pictures after Fox News reporter Mark Meredith touched on the subject. “How’s your hand? It looks better now,’ Meredith asked. “My hand?” Trump responded. “Nothing. Maybe it was AI,” he remarked.
At the end of the Teamsters news conference, I asked Trump about those recent photos in NY of his hands not looking so great…he had a joke ready to go… pic.twitter.com/3o2A9PnqEl
— Mark Meredith (@markpmeredith) January 31, 2024
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung had earlier dismissed all the viral rumors saying, “The media hysteria and ridiculous commentary from reporters and journalists just proves how unserious some news outlets have become.” As per Forbes , Hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe speculated that the spots might be anything from sores from Trump’s reported slamming of his hands on a table during his defamation trial to red marker doodles. Meanwhile, Democratic strategist and CNN contributor James Carville said “There’s a good chance this man has the clap,” on the Politicon show.
As per Metro UK , late-night talk shows Jimmy Fallon Live! and The Tonight Show included jokes about Trump’s finger painting the face of Wilson the volleyball from the film Cast Away. Kimmel sarcastically also referred that such red spots were frequently cited as a sign of syphilis. “He famously said avoiding STDs was his personal Vietnam, but if he has syphilis that would mean the only Vietnam he avoided was Vietnam,” Kimmel joked .
As per Metro UK , close sources within the Trump campaign provided information that differed from what most others had assumed. ‘We’re told the only thing that was afflicting Trump that day was a simple paper cut, and he accidentally spread the blood around his hand,’ TMZ reported on Thursday. ‘Yep, that’s what the Trump camp is saying here … just a little nick.’
Having been ordered last week to pay Carroll $83.3 million in damages for calling her a liar after she accused him of raping her, Trump addressed the red marks. As per Metro UK , Carroll, 80, filed a lawsuit against Trump in November 2019 after he denied, five months earlier, that he had sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s. The 77-year-old Trump stated that Carroll made up her narrative to increase sales of her memoir and that he had never heard of her. The Republican leader blasted the legal system shortly after the verdict, saying: “Absolutely ridiculous! Our legal system is out of control, and being used as a political weapon.”