Last month, the White House revealed that president Donald Trump's "mild swelling in his lower legs," visible in press pool photos, was the product of chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), a disorder that causes blood to pool in the extremities rather than pump back to the heart.
Life since that July admission has, for the most part, gone on. But a few pundits have started poking fun at Trump's "cankles" — and now, this infamously vain president is crying "fake news" to distract from his vein disorder.
In a fresh broadside, MSNBC anchor Chris O'Donnell joked that the White House may be engaged in a cankle coverup after Trump was filmed sitting behind the Oval Office's Resolute Desk during a recent meeting with European leaders instead of sitting on the couches with them, as is customary. He did so, O'Donnell quipped, so that "no one was going to compare his ankles to a French president’s ankles or a German chancellor’s or a British prime minister’s."
Having already been caught with his swollen ankles exposed in photos from last week's Alaskan summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump wasn't going to get caught by photographers twice. Unfortunately for him, the O'Donnell had a punchline for that one too, noting that Putin's "72-year-old ankles showed none of the mileage" of Trump’s, who is seven years the Russian president's senior.
Like many observers, O'Donnell pointed out that Trump's "lifetime of McDonald’s junk food" seems to have caught up with him vis-à-vis his CVI diagnosis. Those jabs may have been a bridge too far for the American president, who finally entered the fray without specifically addressing the cankles in question.
In a post on his failing Truth Social platform, Trump raged in old-school all-caps about MSNBC, citing its recent announcement that it would soon change its name to the regrettable MS NOW as a result of being spun out from Comcast and NBCUniversal.
"MSNBC IS DOING SO POORLY IN THE RATINGS THAT THEY ARE LOOKING TO CHANGE THEIR NAME IN ORDER TO GET AWAY FROM THE STENCH OF THEIR FAKE NEWS PRODUCT," the president fulminated. "SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH THEIR WEAK AND INEFFECTIVE OWNER, ''CONCAST,' HEADED BY DOPEY BRIAN ROBERTS, HOPELESSLY AND AIMLESSLY FLAILING IN THE WIND IN AN ATTEMPT TO DISASSOCIATE ITSELF FROM THE GARBAGE THAT THEY CREATED!"
"MSNBC," Trump continued e-shrieking, "IS A FAILURE BY ANY NAME!!!"
As cringey as the rebrand is, it's telling that the president is only mentioning it now, after one of his longtime critics at the outlet took on his vanity and health — a possible sign that Trump, who once claimed he could shoot someone on Manhattan's 5th Avenue and get away with it may be developing cracks in his once-formidable armor.
More on Trump: Trump's Limbs Are Looking Awfully Swollen
Share This Article