Donald Trump may be the 47th President of the United States but his appearance and ‘orange’ glow often get tongues wagging as much as his policies – here we take a look at how his look has transformed over the years
Donald Trump’s ‘orange hue’ has sparked confusion for decades, and the mystery around his striking complexion shows no sign of slowing down.
The US president is renowned for his very warm glow, but he hasn’t always looked so sun-kissed, according to commentators. Experts agree that when it comes to Donald Trump’s faux tan, there are times when it seems to be more extreme than others -and the orange tint appears to have peaked in 2020 before being toned down leading up to the 2024 election.
Trump looked very different in the early days of his career. In old photos, when he worked in real estate he was much paler – just like you would expect from someone with Scottish and German heritage. It wasn’t until 2012, with The Apprentice, that he started wearing makeup regularly for TV and related appearances.
From then on he quickly became synonymous with orange and by 2015, just as he became a serious presidential candidate, the world became even more fascinated by his tanning regime. And there’s been plenty of debate about what he uses to achieve his ‘orange’ glow over the years.
Some suggest that Trump uses both tanning beds and spray tans to achieve his desired hue – with the lighter colour around his eyes due to wearing goggles during those processes. In her 2018 book Unhinged, former aide Omarosa Manigault even claimed that Trump fired a staff member for failing to set up a tanning bed at the White House properly.
However, make-up artist Kriss Blevens, who has made-up every President since Jimmy Carter including Trump – recently concluded that Trump’s colour comes from self-tanner. “Because I have done Trump’s makeup several times, I can tell you that, at times, his face looked bronzer than the rest of him, and that was before makeup,” she told Fast Company. “My guess was he relied on some self-tanners to try to maintain a certain look that he’d come to feel healthy in from living in Florida.”
The Mirror previously spoke to celebrity makeup artist Safia Cox to get her take on Trump’s ‘orange’ hue. “I think he uses some sort of fake tan or tinted moisturiser with a bronzer,” she said. “I 100% do not think it’s sun beds as it would be a completely different tone. It’s definitely some sort of cream product that he uses and has probably mattified it after because it’s so orange. You can see the rim around his face. If you look closely at his hairline, it’s very pale, and that’s not from sunbeds; he’s slapping some sort of cream product on.”
And she pointed out that Trump does seem to have become more ‘orange’ over the years, which could be due to feeling more insecure as he gets older. “I think his makeup has changed over the years, and I think it as he’s got older and potentially a little more insecure. The ever changing orange hue has become the subject of many internet discussions and memes – with people wondering why he likes to be so orange.”
Safia even suggests that he slaps on more fake tan the more stressed he becomes. “He has pictures taken of him and cameras on him a lot, so he must think it’s a good look, and some people say when he’s stressed, he uses more tan,” she explains. “If you look at photos of him towards the end of campaigns, he’s much more orange.
The makeup expert even went as far to say the President must have ‘fake tan blindness’ which makes him blind to how ‘bad’ his tan looks. “He has orange blindness or fake tan blindness, and I don’t think he realises,” the makeup expert declared.
“It’s not a nice bronze, he doesn’t look like he’s just hopped off a plane he just looks like he’s layered on fake tan. It’s bizarre; he’s either really insecure, and it’s for confidence and thinking he looks good, or he’s being clever and doing it to get people to talk about him.”
