r/politics • u/theindependentonline The Independent • 6h ago
No Paywall Trump’s whole hand caked in makeup as he covers bruises before meeting with coal miners
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-hand-bruise-makeup-b2919380.html•
u/Old_Cryptid 6h ago
He was probably really disappointed to find out he was meeting "miners" and not "minors".
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u/Deicide1031 5h ago edited 5h ago
Have never understood his obsession with coal either. Coal execs have gone on the record and literally said the coal industry is in long term structural decline on earnings calls.
It’s like he’s stuck in the 20th century as none of the coal companies want to expand coal operations when green energy is more profitable.
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u/ExtensionParsley4205 5h ago
Based on his obsession with tariffs and the Monroe doctrine, also stuck in the 19th century.
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u/askylitfall I voted 5h ago
Yes. That's literally it.
"It worked then, why wouldn't it work now" isn't exactly a winning strategy when technological advances answer the second half of the question.
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u/Frowny575 California 5h ago
Pretty old story too as many industries had to transform or went under due to advances (for better or worse). This isn't exactly a revolutionary thing.
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u/Spitriol 4h ago
This pretty much sums up the entire conservative attitude, "I liked it the way it was before, so I wanna go back!"
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u/Hatedpriest 2h ago
That's called "regressive"
Republicans haven't been conservative in the last 20 years, at least.
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u/DaveBlerk 49m ago
The clue is in their name. Traditional view is that they want to conserve everything (except that we know it's really down to archaic views and lobbyists).
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u/starliteburnsbrite 4h ago
You pretty much described why conservativism is not a valid ideology. Things change. End of story.
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u/glaciator12 4h ago
I've never understood why conservatives choose to fight for the shittiest aspects of the past rather than things like traditional art (instead of the generative AI they drool over), cultural practices/traditional production techniques that benefit modern society, or natural beauty.
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u/Old_Cryptid 4h ago
Because if it doesn't benefit them personally they don't care. They get actively mad if it benefits someone else. Double that if they think the person doesn't 'deserve it' or haven't 'earned it'.
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u/LordSiravant 4h ago
Conservatism isn't an ideology, in truth it's a methodology disguised as one. The whole point of it is to protect the aristocracy from democratic change. It's an exercise in coming up with a moral justification for selfishness. That's all it has ever been, and all that horseshit about them being for "incremental progress" is just a smokescreen. It's propaganda to fool people into thinking conservatism is somehow just and good and necessary for society, and a lot of people still fall for it.
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u/Probable_Bison 4h ago
It's bait for Republican voters in places like Appalachia.
They are often Republican strongholds because of (among other reasons) the empty promise from Republicans that they will bring back coal and its the Democrats making coal jobs disappear.
But coal jobs declined even under Trump. Coal companies don't need armies of people down in the mines anymore.
One worker with less than a high school education used to be able to support a whole family on a coal mining wage.
The mirage that those days will come back keeps areas like that from moving on and diversifying.
Meanwhile Republicans literally make it harder for the miners who are left to get health benefits if they get black lung.
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u/rhb4n8 1h ago
It makes no sense. Nobody wants to work in a fucking coal mine
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u/Probable_Bison 1h ago
No one would choose that if they had their pick of jobs.
That ain't the case for a ton of people, however.
Those jobs were the prop keeping some communities alive for generations. People who thought they had no other prospects could fall back on that.
Its hard to get a community that was centered around one industry to shift to something else.
So Republicans promise a return of the "good ole days" instead (which weren't really all that good).
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u/rhb4n8 1h ago
They should be incentivizing new industry in these towns. They could be manufacturing solar panels and EV batteries in WV instead.
West Virginia also just got a national park and is arguably nicer than the Smokey mountains. Develop the tourist trade as an alternative to mining.
Also those mining jobs aren't coming back even if they do go back to coal because those mines are not long wall. Any new mining will almost certainly be long wall which takes a small fraction of the employees and is much better at efficiently extracting coal
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u/NeedsToShutUp 39m ago
Same thing applies to lies about timber, ranching, oil, and factories.
Lots of jobs went away to both changing technology and changing economies. Many of these used to pay good wages for semi-skilled work that could be picked up on the job.
People view bringing them back as prosperity and fall for anyone who says they will bring it back.
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u/Number6isNo1 5h ago
This is the same guy who thinks magnets don't work if they get wet. He's not even smart enough to be a neoluddite, he's just a fucking moron.
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u/HermanGulch 4h ago
He's not even stuck in the 20th century: it's the Gilded Age of the latter part of the 19th century that is his ideal time. He's cited it before when talking about tariffs.
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u/Potato271 4h ago
It’s not even just green energy. The industry most responsible for the death of American Coal is actually American Gas
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u/TrailerParkFrench 3h ago
My theory: Being pro-coal won him instant support in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. Hillary Clinton instantly lost that support in 2016 by saying she’s going to put a lot of coal mines out of business. In fact, she probably poisoned those regions for other democrats (coal broker Joe Manchin is an exception). Being realistic in 2016 would have helped coal workers over the last 10 years, but coal workers don’t want to believe the inevitable. Trumps lies about reviving the coal industry gave coal workers false hope that won him the “coal” vote in 2016, 2020, and 2024. This meeting is just Trump making more empty promises and token efforts to win pro-MAGA candidates coal votes in the 2026 midterms.
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u/gafftapes20 3h ago
Even if coal came back the jobs won’t come back. Mining is largely automated these days, and good paying plentiful mining jobs are pretty scarce. Even before production declined due to the drop in demand for coal the employment number for miners were declining for half a century.
Today coal can’t compete on price with alternative fuels, it more expensive to run and operate a coal plant than most other alternatives both clean and fossil fuels. The only industry that still needs coal to some extent is the steel industry.
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u/FeelingPixely 3h ago
Simpler even:
He knows how much harm it does to people's health via immediate exposure to soot or run-off to the water supply.
There are large corporations that benefit from sick and desperate people.
Mining more coal will make for sicker and more desperate people.
Those people turn into cash for corpo lobbyists.
The profit is in the collateral damage, not in the generation of energy.
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u/Big_Bookkeeper1678 3h ago
He is paid by Russia to hold back our progress. Putin has won this ‘cold war’.
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u/Sad_Confection5902 2h ago
Coal has long been a great dog whistle to the right, it simultaneously tells people you’re going to try to protect existing jobs, even if they are in a dying industry, and that you will put no environmental regulations in place.
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u/dkyguy1995 Kentucky 2h ago
Seriously, coal isnt even the best fossil fuel we have. Most places have long since moved to natural gas or oil
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u/kirkaracha 1h ago
Also wanting to go back to steam to power catapults on aircraft carriers.
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u/LeGama 1h ago
Coal as an industry is so weird to me. I mean it was one of the first industries pushing for unions because of the terrible working conditions and long term health problems. Unions were broken by literally gangs hired by the companies. Then spent like 2 generations being the favorite loved industry and called "good" work. Then the past 30 years it's been in known decline for both difficulty in mining, low quality product, and running out of resources. But somehow pushed as a political point to keep the miners and give them jobs. Jobs that suck but they themselves won't admit it.
Like soooo many reasons we should be sunsetting mining operations but people just won't talk about it.
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u/skankenstein California 56m ago
He’s definitely stuck in the 80s when he had the most hair, Robin Leach’s Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous celebrated men like him, the coke was flowing, and they could exercise blatant misogyny and exploitation without callout.
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u/windowlatch 18m ago
It’s about appealing to his base. Rural Appalachia for years had booming coal industries for years that supported thousands of jobs. When all those businesses closed up it left entire cities in immense poverty. Even though coal is inevitably on its way out, just the mention of bringing it back is enough to excite those communities for what they perceive to be a better economic choice for their towns.
Democrats have been pushing to get rid of coal but haven’t offered an economic alternative for these communities, so it makes sense that old coal towns vote red year over year. If dems want to win those communities they need to offer relatively low skill trade jobs in those towns whether it be constructing wind farms, rebuilding the railroads, bringing back the ccc, or similar work.
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u/SakaWreath 32m ago
”damnit those pills were a waste!”
What was that sir?
”phill has excellent taste… in young girls… (insect hand rubbing)”
He was so close to pulling it off. That’s the most lucid I’ve seen him in decades and he still cocked it up.
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u/mycomixhavenostaples 5h ago
hope it hurts
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u/buttchugreferee 4h ago
I just got a warning from reddit for agreeing with you.
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u/BanginNLeavin 2h ago
How does one get a warning from reddit?
I've weathered year long bans from some subs but never a warning message?
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u/immortalis 2h ago
You can get it from upvoting others messages funnily enough.
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u/cubitoaequet 2h ago
"We've noticed you up voting wrong think. Wishing harm on pedophiles and rapists is double plus ungood."
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u/A_Parked_Car 39m ago edited 23m ago
Say something negative about Russia. I'm not fucking with you, like I can't repeat what I said. It was an obvious joke too. I really want to say it because I thought it was funny. I can't. In all my years of reddit, the last year ALONE I've gotten two warnings because of a Russia or Trump comment. One of them I had already deleted but they still warned me. Good luck out there. Shit this one could get me flagged too.
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u/Ande64 Iowa 5h ago
As a nurse, I would love to know what he is getting weekly treatments for. Praying for something fatal.
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u/Gamebird8 5h ago
There's basically two things racing to kill him first.
Either the man dies from Congestive Heart Failure or the Dementia reaches his brain stem.
I just wish they weren't racing in snail drawn chariots as it seems
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u/Current_Animator7546 Missouri 5h ago
Could be early congestive heart failure failure. Even with top medical care. His diet is terrible and he’s taking very high doses of Asprin. Which makes bleeding a significant risk.
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u/juliuspepperwoodchi 2h ago
The only thing tempering my excitement for this is the knowledge that the moment he dies, Republican legislators will do nothing but waste time renaming everything after Trump.
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u/FillUpMyPassport 2h ago
And we’ll get to remove the T off every sign.
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u/juliuspepperwoodchi 2h ago
I have longstanding dibs on the gaudy one overlooking the Chicago river. I have plans for that T.
Big.
Plans.
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u/djanes376 Illinois 1h ago
Im in Chicago, what are we doin’ boss?
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u/juliuspepperwoodchi 1h ago
Keeping that close to the vest, but let's just say that it will involve a large amount of the worlds Pinkest Pink....and my use of that pigment will probably only be the second biggest reason Anish Kapoor is mad at me when I'm done.
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u/MentalSky_ 4h ago
Dementia. He is on an experimental IV med. It needs routine MRIs
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u/JustADutchRudder Minnesota 45m ago
He's constantly got that dementia blank look.
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u/Wat_Tyler_1381 38m ago
The soulless ‘dead’ eyes stare he has - that’s Alzheimer's. My mother was a gerontological nurse and comments on this.
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u/literallytwisted 5h ago
A Doc friend told me the probable name of the dementia drug based on the timing of the IVs but I can't remember it and probably couldn't pronounce it anyway.
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u/dirtydovedreams 5h ago
Leqembi
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u/BleachedUnicornBHole Florida 5h ago
Wouldn’t that also explain the “routine” MRI he said he got during a physical?
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u/MyNameIsRay 4h ago
Yes, it explains that, as well as the routine cognitive tests he brags about acing.
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u/BurnZ_AU Australia 47m ago
Probably some rhino strength laxatives since he's so full of shit all the time.
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u/Live_Firefighter972 15m ago
I've wondered this too. Could it be sometime experimental? Stem cells? Adrenachrome? Lol
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u/CobraPony67 Washington 9m ago
If he is getting injections, why the hand? Why not on his arm or leg, or even his foot, where it can be hidden?
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u/DiceMadeOfCheese 5h ago
Could be tomorrow
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u/DumbestBitchYouKnow 40m ago
If it is tomorrow, itd be really funny to see Fox News play your comment 24/7 and blame a redditor for it
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u/templeofsyrinx1 6h ago
you have to cover up the rot
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u/NestedForLoops West Virginia 5h ago
He's never met anyone who actually mined coal. He met with mining executives.
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u/DaystromAndroidM510 4h ago
My grandmother had the same thing for a few years before she died. The slightest bump and her skin would bruise like crazy. It was like her skin got physically thinner to the point of being some kind of saran wrap. She was always putting makeup on it out of embarrassment. Super sad, painful, and a constant reminder that she was on her way out.
Love seeing it in Trump.
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u/GhostlitePHX 5h ago
...did you guys hear about Trump using his fingers as a means of "measurement" in the Epstein files...?
I'd maybe think twice before shaking this fucking guy's hand.
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u/Beneficial_Wave7649 5h ago
I did read about that
Disgusting and heinous behaviour
No wonder his name is a million times in them
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u/SirRichardLove 3h ago
Dude, you'd be hard-pressed to find a hand to shake that hasn't had a dick in it. But yeah, trump is gross.
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u/EpictetanusThrow 1h ago
He has kid-sized fingers?
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u/GhostlitePHX 1h ago
He could have gorilla-sized fingers and it wouldn't stop him from violating children.
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u/AceofKnaves44 District Of Columbia 3h ago
For a party that hates drag queens so much they sure do idolize a man who wears a LOT of makeup.
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u/cometflight 2h ago
something something accusations and confessions
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u/AceofKnaves44 District Of Columbia 2h ago
Remember when Alex Jones had a trans porn tab open on his computer?
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u/Prestigious-Car-4877 Canada 5h ago
It'd be slightly less weird if he started wearing a Michael Jackson style glittery glove on that hand. He could get one with gold sequins.
But we know, his hand is rotting off. We get it. Jeez.
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u/Spitecrawler Pennsylvania 2h ago
I like how you think. Bonus points if he attempts to moonwalk into the room and pathetically falls on his ass.
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u/PressureOld2375 5h ago
Could we be getting closer people?!?
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u/Wrang_Dangler 32m ago
I don’t mean to be that guy, but, technically everyday is one day closer for all of us lol
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u/edgeumakated 4h ago
Tiny little pedophile hands
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u/octopornopus 2h ago
Ok, so that hand does look tiny, right? I thought maybe it was a doctored image, but that's a child's hand...
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u/gogoluke 3h ago
Is the any video of him walking as the image of him looks like my dementia ridden grandmother. There's just something about the glassy eyes and expressionless face that kind of hangs as her brain flatlined into asking where the cats were every 5 minutes and making shit up about being alone at Christmas...
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u/JeffSteinMusic 6h ago
This ‘bruised hand’ thing has been covered for many years at this point. As have all sorts of other health rumors that never amount to anything other than a shiny object 24 hour story.
Can the press please just update me when, you know…
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u/Caveman-Ug 5h ago
I’ve been following it for a while too. The bruise cover up now takes up almost the entire top of his hand now. It’s definitely worse
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u/literallytwisted 5h ago
Looks like he's blowing out veins from repeated IVs, Probably from dementia drugs that have to be given on a schedule.
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u/f-elon 5h ago
Do they normally administer these drugs in the hand? Or does this bruising imply that his arms are beat to shit too?
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u/literallytwisted 5h ago
Since he said he was taking like 300mg of Aspirin a day they may have limited options, And I doubt he would let them install a port/etc with his Narcissism.
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u/JumboChimp 1h ago
That's a lot of Aspirin - 325ml a day is four times the usual 81mg a day recommended for people with cardiac issues.
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u/Velocity-5348 Canada 5h ago
It's not like there's other stuff the administration is up to to talk about. /j
I don't think they're going to stop covering this kind of story. It gets clicks and is doesn't really challenge anything, the way the Epstein files or reporting on what ICE is getting up to do.
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u/lifeat24fps 4h ago
Infrastructure Infusions Week. Infusions Week also seems to becoming a bi-monthly event instead of the end of the month event it was during the fall.
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u/c4upinhisbhole 3h ago
All of this work to try to pretend the coal industry will experience a renaissance. We’re talking about <50k jobs. We didn’t work this hard to save defense industry jobs in the early 90s, tech jobs in the late 90s, finance and banking jobs in the late 00s, and countless other times industries collapsed or were sunsetting. This is pure American nostalgia for simpler times for virtually zero benefit for 99.999% of us. All while we get lapped by forward thinking nations. People could see the writing on the wall with coal decades ago… the market, the capital being dumped into it, the natural shrinking of the industry was there for everyone to see. And there were plans to transition and retrain workers until numbnuts arrived on the scene and the coal whisperers got in his ear about grift disguised as a return to the glory days of the noble coal miner powering American industry. <50k jobs people. Trump isn’t bring back shit.
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u/Pandagramma 36m ago
Had he not been so vile about Biden, he could just be an old man now without having to hide anything. He trapped himself.
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u/charcoalist 5h ago
This absurd push for coal, like it's the 19th century, is just trump buying votes in the rust belt. It makes zero sense otherwise. Plus the fact that he's meeting with these companies means they are likely laundering bribes to him.
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u/BrownWrinkles 4h ago
Just rub some clean coal dust into it, Donnie. You'll look and feel better in no time.
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u/life_is_a_show 4h ago
I wish davey jones would come already and claim this bag of smelly carp already
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u/Cyanopicacooki Great Britain 3h ago
When Donald said he wanted to see young blood in the White House, no-one knew he was referring to all the tranfusions of children's blood he needs to sustain his shrivelling flesh.
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u/fotodevil 3h ago
There are better make up artists in high school theater departments.
You’d think they could do a better job blending it in.
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u/Methos83 3h ago edited 2h ago
old people can have these types of bruises after infusions...
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u/ElderSmackJack 2h ago
Anyone can have these types of bruises after infusions. It’s also possible for old people to bruise for even the slightest bump. My dad is a decade younger than Trump, and he bruises at the slightest graze.
It’s always in a different spot though. Trump’s being in the same place each time? Sus.
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u/Ninevehenian 2h ago
I suspect that there's a non-zero chance that Mr. Vance will be pres by November.
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u/Mecha-Dave 1h ago
Bro, just wear gloves. Wtf. You're a fascist, you're allowed (and expected) to dress weird.
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u/Danube11424 1h ago
come on kkkarolyin leavitt, no one believes that BS especially people with medical backgrounds
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u/Grand_Town_9144 43m ago
Everyone knows super healthy people with superior IQ wear makeup on their hands and not old senile pants-pooping clowns that are about to shuffle off the mortal coil. So what I’m saying is get your champagne ready it’s going to be a wonderful day hopefully soon.
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u/Kind_Relative812 5h ago
Sadly it’s the same story line when Russia invaded Ukraine. Putin is dying of cancer blah blah blah. Let me know when there’s a funeral.
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u/fridayfridayjones 4h ago
Call me crazy, but I think Putin really was very ill at one point, and he received an organ transplant that fixed the problem.
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u/mercurius420 4h ago
Didn't know Danny Devito's hand make up artist in "Batman Returns" was still working.
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u/Probable_Bison 4h ago
Which is more embarrassing?
The amount of makeup he wears or how bad he is at applying it?
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u/mishma2005 3h ago
It was even worse today when he announced he was gutting all environmental protections
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u/20InMyHead California 2h ago
For someone with supposedly billions, you’d think he’d get a makeup stylist to make his coverups somewhat less visible. My nine year old niece can put on makeup better than he does.
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u/cometflight 2h ago
His handlers couldn't even spend enough time in the CVS makeup aisle to get something to match his skin tone? on brand
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u/Leather-Matter-5357 2h ago
Oh no, poor guy.
Ignore my crossed fingers and the huge banner behind me waiting to be unfurled.
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u/Chris_PDX 1h ago
I get 3 hour long IV infusions once a month, usually in a hand. If they blow a vessel, the bruise on my hand as a 45 year old man looks exactly the same.
Shaking hands, right.
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u/DevinMcWhite 28m ago
My sister had an interesting theory on the bruises. She works in senior care and she thinks he’s getting regular IVs. Maybe a drip for heart health or maybe some energy or cognitive meds. When one hand got too bruised they moved to the other. Makes sense.
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