Does Donald Trump have secondary syphilis?

Democratic strategist James Carville speculates that Donald Trump has secondary syphilis after he was spotted with red-mottled hands this past Wednesday.

Pictures of Trump as he left a courthouse in New York City – where he was attending his trial in the defamation lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, who he sexually assaulted – showed him with red sores on his palm and on his fingers as he waved.

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The mysterious spots were the subject of speculation online, and Carville suggested that they may be the result of a sexually transmitted infection.

“I’ve asked a number of M.D.s what medical condition manifests itself through hand sores,” he said on his podcast. “And the answer is immediate and unanimous: Secondary syphilis. All right. I think there’s a good chance this man has the clap, and I’m not being particularly secretive about it.”

Red or brown spots on the palms of the hands and bottoms of the feet are a key sign of secondary syphilis, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which also says that such sores may be the symptoms of other diseases. Syphilis is caused by a bacterial infection and, if left untreated, has symptoms that include nerve and brain damage.

Carville wasn’t the only person talking about Trump’s hands online, and #SyphilisDon was trending on X yesterday. The Drudge Report’s top story this morning was about the speculation that Trump has syphilis.

Speculation about presidential candidates’ health is not new, and conservative activists have spent decades making up baroque theories about major Democrats’ health based on little information.

For example, a Secret Service agent in 2016 was spotted carrying a flashlight near Hillary Clinton as she ran for president, which conservatives on social media were quick to mislabel as an “Auto-Injector Syringe For Anti-Seizure Drug Diazepam.” Fox News’s Sean Hannity and the influential Gateway Pundit both ran with the fake story.

Some conservatives have been claiming that President Joe Biden is actually dead and has been replaced by a body double or a clone.

“They’ve been pretty good up until now making sure he never spends too long in a hot room so the mask will start coming off of his chin,” one commentator on X posted last year, getting millions of views. “Here the mask is starting to coming loose, it is visible and you can see the bulging in the chin area.” He was referring to Biden’s neck skin, which, at age 81, is a bit loose.

Claims that Biden is suffering from cognitive decline have spread like wildfire on social media this past year, even among many parts of the left. Often, social media users and rightwing activists share clips of Biden stuttering – he has a lifelong speech impediment – and claim that it’s a sign of dementia. Other users on social media share manipulated videos or edit out context to imply that he wasn’t speaking appropriately in a certain situation.

The attacks on Biden’s supposed mental acuity have left the right wing and are affecting how a majority of Americans view the president, according to one poll from last year. Meanwhile, Trump’s mental acuity – despite him forgetting at times where he is and speaking in rambling, nonsensical sentences – isn’t a concern for as many voters as Biden’s is, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll from this month.