Karoline Leavitt Can't Cover Up the Truth. Trump's Cankles and Hand Makeup Say It All

[douglas9]

Forget the orange makeup on his hand. Forget the newly grey hair hovering above his scalp. Forget the slits for eyes. The real tell on Donald Trump is below the knee.

His ankles, swollen and straining over his Oxfords, aren’t just unsightly “cankles”; they’re flashing neon signs of a body under pressure. In medical terms, that puffiness often means venous or even cardiac insufficiency, the circulation slowing, the blood not moving as it should. These are not the hinges of stamina that can run a presidential marathon, but the hinges of a retiree glued to his La-Z-boy, feet up and watching Fox News all day.


We’ve already seen this movie when it starred President Joe Biden. The stumbles, the shuffling, the vacant stares, all dismissed until his catastrophic debate meltdown, when the country suddenly realized the emperor had no recall. The press tiptoed around the obvious: he was too old. Then, boom. Reality hit on live TV.

A year later, we’re watching the sequel. Now it’s Trump’s turn under the unflattering fluorescent lights of mortality. He’s 79, a number closer to octogenarian shuffleboard than to nuclear brinkmanship. Just this week, he twice announced he was “going to Russia,” clearly confused about where his hastily scrambled Alaskan summit with President Putin was taking place. The confusion persisted. On Air Force One, he told Brett Baier he was a “deal guy,” and if things didn’t work with Putin he’d “come back to the United States” and work on other things, as if peace in Europe could be abandoned like a casino in Atlantic City.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/karoline-leavitt-cant-cover-up-the-truth-trumps-cankles-and-hand-makeup-say-it-all/

[gordianot]

1. At the age of 68 I had horribly swollen ankles.

I have reversed that with walking at least 3,5 miles daily. My weight today really is 225 lbs and I know what 280 looks like which is my guess.

[twodogsbarking]

6. Fabulous. I strive to keep my weight up. 6'2" and 165 lbs. Life can be strange, eh.

[dem4decades]

2. Gavin Newsome posts fake photos of him shirtless riding a horse, he should post real photos of his ankles.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Important spelling to take note of

Newsom

[Wifes husband]

8. Spelling police again

[speak easy]

10. Nonsense.

Speaking a person's name correctly is basic good manners.

[Wifes husband]

22. Correcting spelling for no reason is not

[speak easy]

23. "Correcting spelling for no reason is not"

Exactly. There is every reason to spell a well known person's name correctly.

[highplainsdem]

24. Misspelling an important person's name here can make it difficult to find messages/threads about

them later. Which should be a consideration on a message board, especially in a forum where threads will slide off the board into archives - and be recoverable only via search - with days. So correcting the spelling of a last name is doing the corrected DUer a favor.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. Republicons have all kinds of ways to misspell Newsom's name. Democrats who respect him have only one

Last edited Mon Aug 18, 2025, 02:16 PM - Edit history (1)

It's not policing. It's respect.

[dem4decades]

17. Please, give me a break. Was my comment "Republican "¿

But thanks for ignoring the content of my post and judging me on my spelling.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. I did give you a break. It was delivered straight with no emotion unless you count "important" as emotional.

I dryly wrote:

Important spelling to take note of
Newsom

Judging? 1) Everyone judges everything of necessity: it is called evaluation. 1b) Those who want to avoid being "judged" or having their utterances evaluated should not write or post or speak or leave their homes. 2) Noting the spelling of a key Democratic politician is not "judging" the person who wrote it. Making a spelling mistake is not a character flaw. How a person reacts to a dry spelling note does reveal character.

My first note was directed to you. My second note was not directed at you or mention you or refer to you. All the same, a spelling mistake, per se, is not disrespect. I did not say YOU were disrespectful. Rather, it should be clear that fixing spelling and being interested in not making the same mistake in the future is respectful to a politician on at least a minimal level. I deliberate mis-capitalize tRump's name because I do not pay him hardly any level of human respect. Even my first note did not mention you since I was not critiquing you; I was critiquing the spelling error.

As to the content of your post: your suggestion is fine but neither noteworthy or exceptional so I passed it over. I don't have much opinion about it.

[Wifes husband]

21. My point exactly.

The spelling police irritate me. Usually miss whole point of the discussion

[multigraincracker]

27. Dysgraphia is a learning disability.

Not a reflection of IQ.
If the message is conveyed it is correct.
Einstein was a terrible speller, along with many other famous people. You can do an online search for others that could not spell correctly.

[Wifes husband]

28. Amen

[Bernardo de La Paz]

29. Agree with 4.5 of your 5 sentences

1: It is. What percentage of people have it or not is not the issue raised, since only the spelling was raised, not the person. Please notice that I did not even call it a mistake until my third post in the thread and only after a couple of objections which took personal offence. I would add that there are tools such as spell checkers that can be curated to help, such as marking Newsome as an error in the dictionary. Further, if an error occurs that is dryly noted without rancor there are the first three options: A) one can silently accept it and edit the post or B) publicly accept it without explanation and edit the post or C) one can publicly accept it with explanation and edit the post. The other options introduce rancor. I understand why people with a disability tire of explaining which is why I feel no explanation is necessary.

2: It is not a reflection of IQ, but oddly you are the only one to mention that discredited statistic.

3. Beware of binary thinking. There are degrees of effectiveness of conveyance. Spelling errors derail reading momentarily while the meaning is deciphered. Spelling errors in Democratic leaders that we support (to some degree, by definition of DU) derail reading for a longer moment while the reader works to reassure themselves that the writer is not a newly minted troll.

4. I'll accept your info about Einstein and many others without looking it up.

5. Indeed we can search.

[SalviaBlue]

14. A simple "Thank You" would have sufficed.

I’m sure the correction was offered in kindness. Too bad it was received with snark.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. Correct, it was offered in kindness, delivered straight w only emotional content being word "important". . nt

[Vinca]

4. All I want to know is how long does he have to live? My dream is he drops dead on live television.

Last edited Mon Aug 18, 2025, 01:06 PM - Edit history (1)

[Hope22]

5. Unnecessary to bring Biden into this.

Foul and untrue comparisons…..

[yardwork]

12. The press can't help themselves.

The essay also makes it sound like Trump has been fine until now, while exaggerating Biden's age-related issues.

Trump has a lot more wrong with him than swollen ankles. And it's been very clear to see for years.

[Wednesdays]

16. And this from The Daily Beast.

Aren't they supposed to be on our side?

[SalviaBlue]

15. I had the same reaction.

They even have to “both-sides” swollen ankles

[Duppers]

30. Indeed ❗

[Javaman]

9. he's a sedentary slob

he sits too much, never really walks at all, except to and from the golf cart, he eats like shit and hasn't exercised at all during his miserable life.

[usonian]

13. He already died and is a piece of robotic flesh. And a CHATBOT!

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/29/the-hallucinating-chatgpt-presidency/

Judge for yourself.

Tue, Apr 29th 2025 09:34am - Mike Masnick

We generally understand how LLM hallucinations work. An AI model tries to generate what seems like a plausible response to whatever you ask it, drawing on its training data to construct something that sounds right. The actual truth of the response is, at best, a secondary consideration.

snip

But over the last few months, it has occurred to me that, for all the hype about generative AI systems “hallucinating,” we pay much less attention to the fact that the current President does the same thing, nearly every day. The more you look at the way Donald Trump spews utter nonsense answers to questions, the more you begin to recognize a clear pattern — he answers questions in a manner quite similar to early versions of ChatGPT. The facts don’t matter, the language choices are a mess, but they are all designed to present a plausible-sounding answer to the question, based on no actual knowledge, nor any concern for whether or not the underlying facts are accurate.

snip

This is not the response of someone working from actual knowledge or policy understanding. Instead, it’s precisely how an LLM operates: taking a prompt (the question about job losses) and generating text based on some core parameters (the “system prompt” that requires deflecting blame and asserting greatness).

The hallmarks of AI generation are all here:
• Confident assertions without factual backing
• Meandering diversions that maintain loose semantic connection to the topic
• Pattern-matching to previous responses (“ripped off,” “billions of dollars”)
• Optimization for what sounds good rather than what’s true

Great article and hard to summarize, because the author gives so many spot-on examples.

What "the media" gets entirely wrong is treating his statements (generated responses) as carefully crafted political strategy, when we have learned to treat AI hallucinations as meaningless babble. By elevating them they participate in the sanewashing of his only cognitive skills: revenge, grift and autocracy.


Repost of https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220281483

[Dulcinea]

18. I would bet my next paycheck...

...that he has CHF & they're trying desperately to cover it up. I'm not a medical professional, but I've seen the symptoms, & the Fascist Felon checks a lot of the boxes.

[Hugin]

32. The nail beds are telling...

O2 infusion is not there. I wouldn't be surprised if we find out the dude is spending his executive time in a pressure chamber. Only brought out for special occasions, sort of like a fascist tone-deaf rhythm impaired Keith Richards.

[Botany]

25. Can't hide the truth Warning Graphic Picture @ link

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:solu3emgjqhn65fkuczg6l6r/bafkreiacpqi5m5o3zyshf3a6xnktgeyk5vzdtzu72vibyxunplprd3644i@jpeg

[Grammy23]

26. No matter how they try to spin it.....

Swollen ankles, bruising, misspeaking or confusing facts in a 79 year old are not evidence of a healthy man. They can trot out anyone they choose to explain it all, but tRump is not a healthy specimen. The true diagnosis whether congestive heart failure, venous insufficiency or any other malady they find in a medical dictionary won’t be revealed until he is DOA or 50 years from now in a tell all book. They will keep sending him out if they have to stuff him and prop him up. He’s their main act, the one the MAGAs worship….although less and less these days. 🤔

[LetMyPeopleVote]

31. trump is not well

I am a type II diabetic with some kidney issues and have had a ton of blood work done. I have had to have blood drawn from my hands on several occasions. trump is not well

Link to tweet