WHAT’S GOING ON: Trump, 79, showed up to his Sunday meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Mar-a-Lago with his now-familiar right hand caked in concealer makeup—and noticeable discoloration on his left hand as well.

When asked for comment, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt recycled the same statement she’s been using since February: Trump is just a “man of the people” who shakes more hands “than any other President in history.”

BUT BUT BUT: Here’s the thing about that excuse—Trump shakes hands with his right hand. He signs documents with his right hand.

So why is his left hand now showing the same mysterious bruising?

The White House didn’t respond to questions about that little detail. Leavitt has previously blamed the bruising on “minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin” as part of a cardiovascular prevention regimen. Social media users immediately noticed the logic problem when photos showed both hands looking battered.

THE DETAILS: The Daily Beast has been tracking Trump’s hand situation for months. On Christmas Eve, his right hand sported the now-signature makeup covering, while his left showed bluish discoloration.

Earlier this month, when Trump awarded himself the FIFA Peace Prize (yes, really), the bruising on his left hand was already visible.

Combined with reports of swollen ankles, a mysterious MRI, mental flubs, and two “annual” medical checkups in a single year, questions about the oldest person ever inaugurated are piling up.

The White House maintains Trump is in “excellent health.”

WHY IT MATTERS: We spent four years demanding transparency about Joe Biden’s cognitive fitness—and rightly so. But now we have a 79-year-old president whose administration can’t even keep their cover story straight about visible bruising.

The handshake explanation was always weak. Now it’s actively insulting.

If Trump’s health is fine, prove it. If it’s not, the American public deserves to know.

What we don’t deserve is a press secretary copy-pasting the same debunked statement while the evidence literally spreads before our eyes.

Donald Trump lashed out at reporters during a Mar-a-Lago photo op with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling a question about security agreements "dumb" even as he claimed peace talks were progressing. Trump also expressed "sympathy" with Russia's position, saying he understands why Putin doesn't want a ceasefire. Translation: The man who promised to end the war "on Day One" is now doing Putin's PR work. Full story from NOTICE News

The FBI announced it's deploying "more resources" to Minnesota to investigate what right-wing media has hyped as massive fraud schemes, with the Somali immigrant community squarely in the crosshairs. The timing is suspicious: This comes as viral videos from a 23-year-old YouTuber—racking up 90 million views claiming "potentially the largest fraud scandal in U.S. history"—fuel xenophobic narratives. The real scandal? Using law enforcement to legitimize racist conspiracy theories while actual white-collar criminals in boardrooms face zero scrutiny. Full story from The Guardian

Trump’s Justice Department was secretly tracking a journalist’s flight information on the exact day Jeffrey Epstein was arrested—and we’re only finding out now because the records accidentally got swept into the Epstein file dump. This is Nixon-level surveillance of the press, except instead of tapping phones about political opponents, Trump’s DOJ was monitoring the reporter who literally forced them to prosecute America’s most connected pedophile. Full story from NOTICE News

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confidently predicted Democrats will retake the House in 2026, pointing to Trump's tanking approval ratings and Republican infighting. What she conveniently didn't mention: The Democratic Party's failure to deliver material improvements to working people's lives, its embrace of corporate donors over grassroots movements, and its reflexive centrism that demobilizes its own base. Full story from The Guardian

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