President Donald Trump walks at Newark Liberty International Airport as he travels en route to Trump National Golf Club Bedminster, in Newark, New Jersey, August 7, 2026. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
President Donald Trump this week insisted that he does not and has never worn a wig, prompting his one-time biographer to reveal the complicated "hair maintenance" that actually goes into crafting his bizarre appearance.
Trump made the remarks during a Rose Garden address on Wednesday, where he discussed a rally in 2024, which had "the worst weather I think I’ve ever experienced outside of maybe a hurricane we had in Florida one time." This, he claimed, was proof against the popular rumor that his odd signature hairdo is the result of wearing a wig.
“I went up to the speaker, and it was blowing so hard,” Trump said. “You know, for years, I had to suffer with people saying, ‘He wears a wig.' I don’t wear a wig. But that night, they found out I did not wear a wig because if you did, it was not going to be on your head very long."
Michael Wolff is a longtime reporter and author, best known for his extensive coverage of Trump's political career, including several books about his chaotic first term. During the latest episode of his Daily Beast podcast, "Inside Trump's Head," co-host Joanna Coles pressed Wolff for his take on Trump's wig claims, which he said were technically accurate, but obscured the deeper, weirder truth about the president's "hair maintenance."
"It is only equivocally not a wig, because I know that... he has what are called patches, and they call it the patch kit," Wolff explained. "And the patch kit is little, you know, small tufts of hair that match whatever color his hair might be at the time, and those are applied if needed and if necessary. So the maintenance of this hair is a major enterprise and has been for many years."
He added: "And in my first book, in Fire and Fury, I described Ivanka... she had a kind of amused perspective on her father and she described the way that hair came together, of having to tease it in certain ways and having to pull it in certain ways and having to fluff it in certain ways. And so you kind of created this confection on top, which is it does look like one of those spun sugar things that you could put your hand in and pull it out and start eating it, and it would have no calorific value whatsoever."
When pressed about whether the patches were held on by some sort of glue, Wolff could only say that they are "pretty secure." He also explained why Trump's claims about not wearing a wig reminded him of Richard Nixon's infamous "I am not a crook" claims.
"That's probably a pretty good indication," he added. "If Trump is making a declaratory statement, then the opposite is probably true."