do
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a CNN medical analyst, said Friday that President Donald Trump’s explanation for his aspirin use “doesn’t make sense.”
Trump, 79, told The Wall Street Journal that he has a reason for taking a high dose of the drug against the advice of his doctors and despite the visible bruising it has caused on his hands.
“I want nice, fine blood to flow through my heart,” he told the newspaper. “Does that make sense?”
Reiner said no, noting that blood thinners like aspirin do not literally “thin” the blood, as Trump seems to think.
“It’s not like swapping some of the gumbo for chicken soup,” he said. “It doesn’t make it thinner. It makes clotting less likely to form.”
Reiner, who was longtime cardiologist to the late former Vice President Dick Cheney, said many patients were once given aspirin to prevent heart attacks, but that advice has changed over the years, especially for people over 70.
“Not only is there no benefit in terms of primary prevention (trying to prevent a cardiac event by giving them aspirin) but there may also be danger,” he said. “And the danger can be hemorrhage, significant hemorrhage.”
Trump, he noted, told the Journal that he is taking 325 mg of aspirin a day.
“But the dose we use for patients even with documented coronary artery disease is a quarter, that is, 81 mg per day,” Reiner said. “So why is the president taking an unorthodox dose of aspirin?”
Trump, he noted, has frequently been seen with bruises on his hands. She often uses bandages and concealer to cover them, like in this image from December:
Julia Demaree Nikhinson via News
The White House has said the bruises are due to both aspirin use and frequent handshaking.
However, The Wall Street Journal said there have been “several cases” of his hand being cut off, causing bleeding that has “alarmed” witnesses. One such incident occurred at the 2024 Republican National Convention, when future attorney general Pam Bondi high-fived Trump and cut him with a ring in the process.
In the WSJ interview, Trump dismissed it as a “small cut.”
Bruises and using concealer to cover them have become a regular part of your appearance. The president admitted that his doctors want him to take the lowest dose of 81 mg per day, but said he ignores that advice because it’s “a little superstitious.”
That revelation baffled Reiner.
“If you had a lot of bruising and your doctor told you that you take too much aspirin, why wouldn’t you go down to the lowest dose?” he wondered. “It doesn’t make sense to me.”
See more of their analysis below:
President Trump tells the WSJ he is taking more aspirin than doctors recommend. Is it a good idea? Dr. Jonathan Reiner weighs in. pic.twitter.com/tpzqipXMBE
– The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) January 2, 2026
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President Trump tells the WSJ he is taking more aspirin than doctors recommend. Is it a good idea? Dr. Jonathan Reiner weighs in. pic.twitter.com/tpzqipXMBE
– The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) January 2, 2026