Jarring Photos Of Donald Trump Prove His Makeup Should Never Be Captured Up Close

Donald Trump's downright tragic obsession with bronzer is storied to say the least, and he's suffered seemingly countless makeup mishaps over the years. However, by far the worst of those have been a result of cameras getting a touch too close for comfort. We're going to preface this with a pre-emptive "yikes."

We'll start with the time the president was pictured at a meeting with the White House task force about the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with Trump looking like the real Sleepy Joe. Aside from his undereye bags sticking out like sore thumbs, his bronzer also didn't sit too well on his crow's feet. It didn't end there, though. Evidently, Trump also forgot to apply his signature tangerine hue on his eyelids — or the tip of his nose. All in all, it was just one of Trump's many messy makeup mistakes.

Influencers are known for performing some extensive skincare routines on a flight, so it's possible that when Donald Trump jetted off to Mar-a-Lago for a weekend away in November 2025, he saw it as the perfect opportunity to layer on a serum or two. Or six. That would certainly have explained the sheen on his skin when he disembarked. While his ubiquitous bronzer was still in place, it was impossible to miss the shine from his oily skin.

We've given Donald Trump a McDonald's-inspired hair makeover in the past, but when it came to his matching makeup at the 2025 McDonald's Impact Summit, he needed no assistance.  The president looked as if he'd been working over a hot fryer all day. Even so, we couldn't help but do a double-take when he appeared with one of his greasiest makeup fails to date. It's no wonder he was greasy, either — this is the same man who credited McDonald's french fries for keeping his hair lush. 

Of course, Donald Trump's glam isn't always greasy. There have been moments when he's gone for a more matte look, as in the above image, in which the president met with the FIFA World Cup task force in November 2025. However, we'll admit we were a little distracted by his blindingly white teeth, which only brought attention to his somewhat-toned-down bronzer. Look, there's no question the president has perfect chompers, but whether they're real or not is another issue.

One particularly unfortunate drawback of being photographed up close when you fail to match your foundation to your actual skin tone is how painfully obvious it is when your hands don't match your face. To be honest, if we weren't so used to seeing the president's bright orange face, we might even question if the pale paw shaking Apple CEO Tim Cook's hand even belonged to him.

We kicked things off with a "yikes," but we're going to have to do it again, because ... yikes. Being photographed from below is never ideal, but a bad angle was the least of Donald Trump's worries when a journalist snapped pics of Trump at night near Air Force One. Never has it been clearer that the president doesn't own a makeup sponge. More than that, though, we have to wonder how this particular mishap even happened. CC Karoline Leavitt: Is the president pouring liquid bronzer down his face like a makeup content creator circa 2018? He's never beating the #Skinfluencer allegations. 

When Donald Trump headed to the American Cornerstone Institute's Founder's Dinner in September 2025, he clearly wanted to avoid needing any touch-ups at the event. His solution? Just pile on 20 layers of super-thick, super-muddy bronzer. We really wish there was an upside to this look, but there wasn't. In fact, when the president was pictured on stage from a distance, he looked just as muddy.

It's no wonder Melania Trump wanted her own room when she and her husband were on their U.K. tour in September 2025. Donald Trump's makeup was so greasy that it looked ready to slide right off his face, at least if it wasn't as thick as mud. In addition to all the above (and yet another appearance of those untanned crows' feet), the president also looked puffy and, frankly, exhausted. In short, Trump looked older than ever, but with a slick sheen to top it all off. 

Donald Trump might think he was right about "everything," but he may want to reconsider gloating about not sleeping, a decision that looks very wrong for him. He once again looked exhausted when he visited "The People's House: A White House Experience" in August 2025. On top of looking as fatigued as his hairline, though, he also hadn't blended his makeup particularly well, leaving his ears and lower neck looking decidedly two-toned. His lips were also so pale compared to the rest of his skin that we almost thought he'd dug out a frosty lipstick from 2010 and swiped it on.

Perhaps Donald Trump once heard that hydration was the key to youthful-looking skin, because our chief takeaway from his worst close-ups is that keeping his face moist seems of the utmost importance to the president. Mission accomplished, we guess, based on how he looked while delivering a speech to the United Nations in 2025. However, as far as it pertains to even coverage (or, you know, shade matching), that may be a lost cause. Hey, for better or for worse, no one can ever accuse Trump of not being authentic to himself.