Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised President Donald Trump’s drawing hand as “beautiful” in a podcast rave about his “encyclopedic mind.”
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Kennedy made the remarks in a July 17 interview on the FlyZoneUSA podcast, telling host Trick Trick that actor Mark Ruffalo had told him a blunt verdict on the president.
“You’re working for the stupidest man in America,” Ruffalo explained, Kennedy recalled.
“I actually at one point believed that. I believe he’s very superficial. He’s probably never read a book,” Kennedy insisted.
“But now that I know him, he has like an encyclopedic mind. He knows everything,” Kennedy said, describing Trump’s command of music, musicians, theater, sports, Wall Street deal-making, foreign policy, and architecture.
“One time when I was on his plane with him, we started talking about troop strength in Syria and Iran and Israel and Jordan,” Kennedy said. “And he drew — he’s got a very beautiful hand — and he drew a perfect picture of the Mideast with all the countries, and he put the troop strength on every border of all those countries.”
The praise landed differently given what is publicly known about Trump’s hands.
New York Magazine has tracked the bruising since it first drew widespread attention in February 2025, when a photographer zoomed in during Trump’s meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and captured what appeared to be makeup covering a bruise on the back of his right hand.
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The Independent reported in February of this year that Trump arrived at a White House meeting with coal miners with what appeared to be heavy makeup caked across his right hand, the dark bruise still visible beneath.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt repeatedly attributed the bruising to Trump’s handshaking, New York Magazine reported — a claim that drew skepticism after bruising was also spotted on his left hand, which he does not use for handshakes.
In July 2025, the White House disclosed that Trump had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency — a condition in which veins in the legs struggle to return blood to the heart, according to New York Magazine. His doctor confirmed Trump takes 325 milligrams of aspirin daily, four times the standard cardiac dose of 81 milligrams.
“I read the report that he was taking 325mg of aspirin, and that is only recommended for people who’ve had a stroke to prevent a second stroke from a partially blocked artery,” Dr. Bruce Davidson told The Daily Beast.
Trump acknowledged the aspirin caused the bruising in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “I’ve done it for years, and what it does do is it causes bruising,” he said.
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