US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally to support Republican House of Representatives candidate Ed Gallrein and Senate candidate Andy Barr, at Truist Arena in Highland Heights, Kentucky, US, October 17, 2026.
President Donald Trump reportedly uses makeup to conceal his pale facial skin and bruised hands — and both were obviously apparent, at least according to a report from a recent rally in Texas.
"In a rare move for the president, he wore no tie and left his dress shirt collar unbuttoned as he briefly spoke with reporters before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews," reported The Daily Beast's Sarah Ewall-Wice on Tuesday. "Not only were Trump’s tanned face and neck completely different colors, but onlookers could see the exact line where the president’s repeated application of makeup completely stopped."
Ewall-Wice added, "Trump has long used a mix of tanning, bronzer, and makeup to achieve his signature permanently tanned look, which some critics argue is much closer to orange. But his makeup use and failure to blend it in have drawn additional scrutiny since his return to office for a second term."
Additionally, The Daily Beast reported a noticeably thick caking of makeup on Trump's hands, which have frequently been seen with bruises. Health experts worry these could be signs that he requires blood draws, or perhaps medication or hydration intravenously. The observation about his face, on the other hand, is more analogous to speculation that he had work done on his scalp for a receding hairline; it falls into the realm of gossip about the president's reputed obsession with physical appearance.
In general, Trump has many fixations and traits that have raised concerns about his mental fitness for office. For example, he often is up until late at night posting on his social media platform, Truth Social.
"He's pathologically hyped up and manic," Dr. Henry Abraham, a psychiatrist formerly of Tufts University who in May led an effort by three dozen health experts to warn Congress to invoke the 25th Amendment against Trump, told AlterNet earlier in October. "In fact, the noun for this is maniac. He's a maniac at night, but he's not a maniac during the day, generally. So it's a nocturnal form of mania which remains to be explained."
Forensic psychologist Dr. Alan D. Blotcky, by contrast, says that many of the behaviors which mental health analysts attribute to illness could in fact simply be narcissism.
"It's his narcissistic game that he plays," Blotcky told AlterNet earlier in October. "He sees everybody else as pawns to be manipulated, and so he manipulates the world around him to fit his needs. But I don't think his particular beliefs are so fixed that he does not understand the difference between the truth and not the truth. He doesn't care, but he knows the difference."