A missing necktie turned a routine walk to Air Force One into an unflattering lesson in exactly where the president’s makeup stops.
President Donald Trump, 80, boarded the plane at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, in a dress shirt with no tie and the collar open, exposing a sharp line where the makeup on his face ended and his paler neck began.
He stopped for brief remarks with reporters before flying to two Texas campaign rallies, in Corpus Christi and Lubbock.
Photographers Chip Somodevilla of Getty Images and Kent Nishimura of AFP via Getty Images captured the contrast. Their frames also showed his right hand, which carried a large patch of ill-matched cover-up as he answered questions.
The White House has repeatedly attributed the bruises on his hands to frequent handshaking while taking aspirin. That explanation does not account for the times he has been photographed with bruising on both hands. A memorandum dated July 17, 2025, from presidential physician Sean Barbabella attributed earlier minor bruising to the same combination.
A Second Line in Lubbock
Hours later, at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center, the same band of color ringed his neck. Reuters photographs by Kaylee Greenlee and Kevin Lamarque caught him leaning toward state Attorney General Ken Paxton, with a lighter area visible at the hairline and his eyes, brow and chin without full coverage.
Trump was campaigning there for incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott and for Paxton, the Republican Senate candidate.
Back From Corinth Before Midnight
The schedule has been punishing. A rally in Corinth, Miss., kept Trump out until just before midnight Monday, Oct. 26, when he returned to the White House. The next morning put him back on Air Force One, one stop in a run of rallies held nearly every day as Republicans fight to hold their House and Senate majorities.
The Texas races are tight enough to justify the travel. In the Senate race, Democrat James Talarico drew 50% to Paxton’s 47% in a University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll released Oct. 14, while Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa took 49% to Abbott’s 48% in the contest for governor. The survey reached 861 likely voters from Sept. 25 through Oct. 5 and carried a margin of error of 3.34 points.
Before boarding, Trump voiced confidence in Paxton and took questions about the Nov. 3 elections. Asked how he would work with Democrats should they win control of a chamber, he pointed to his veto power. He also said he would be prepared to preemptively pardon anyone who has worked for him if Democrats take Congress in the midterms.
“I Do It Myself”
Trump raised the subject of makeup himself. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., drew his needling over his campaign’s spending on professional makeup services at a Friday, Oct. 16, rally at Dalton Municipal Airport in Dalton, Ga., where the president campaigned for Republican Senate candidate Mike Collins and gubernatorial hopeful Rick Jackson.
“Jon Ossoff has spent more money on makeup, and by the way I wear very little and I do it myself,” Trump said, miming the application with his hands. “Because if you don’t put a little on you look a little bit like a dead person, and I don’t want to look that way,” he told the crowd. Ossoff, he added, “goes full bore, he’s got the makeup artist, they’re in there all the time—I don’t know how he does it.”
Atlanta-based makeup artist Stephanie Ponder has collected nearly $3,000 from the Ossoff campaign for makeup services since February 2026, with later totals exceeding $4,600. Ponder’s Hollywood credits include “The Notebook” and “The Hunger Games” films. Federal filings showed Ossoff’s spending in that category was the highest among federal candidates at the time of the initial reports.
Elvis Albums and a Sunlamp
Trump has long relied on a mix of tanning, bronzer and makeup for his signature look, and cosmetics have regularly covered the tops of his frequently bruised hands since he returned for a second term. Every president since Jimmy Carter has been prepped by professional makeup artist Kriss Blevens, who has said his face sometimes appeared darker than the rest of him before any product went on. Blevens attributed that to self-tanners.
Writers have noted the complexion for years. Former FBI Director James Comey wrote in his 2018 book “A Higher Loyalty” that Trump’s “face appeared slightly orange, with bright white half-moons under his eyes where I assumed he placed small tanning goggles.” A staff member improperly set up a White House tanning bed and was fired by Trump, Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former White House aide, claimed in her 2018 memoir “Unhinged.”
The routine dates back decades. David Smith, Trump’s former military academy roommate, has recalled him playing Elvis Presley and Johnny Mathis albums, then screwing an ultraviolet light bulb into the overhead socket and lying down for a tan.