Donald Trump’s hair is having another identity crisis.
The president arrived in New Jersey on Friday sporting a tousled head of noticeably darker hair, with his familiar side part suddenly flipped to the opposite side. This comes just weeks after some observers speculated he was using a new hairpiece to augment the sweep of gray/blond hair over his increasingly exposed bald expanse.
“What in the world is going on with Trump’s hair?,” journalist Aaron Rupar wondered on X.
“Did grandpa get a new wig?” asked another.
Republicans Against Trump snarked: “Yes, this is a real photo of Trump.”
Trump has long been sensitive about his hair.
On Thursday, while delivering remarks in the Rose Garden, he insisted, “I don’t wear a wig.” Yet he has previously been photographed with a significant bald patch beneath his comb-over, which can appear to be supplemented by a cotton candy-like hairpiece when his hair gets caught in the wind.
Trump pointed to a particularly windy Ohio rally in 2024 as proof that his hair is authentic, arguing that a wig would have blown off his head in the fierce conditions.
The president appeared to be referring to a rally appearance with Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno held near the Dayton International Airport in Ohio on March 16, 2024. He described the event as “the worst weather I think I’ve ever experienced outside of maybe a hurricane we had in Florida one time.”
“I went up to the speaker, and it was blowing so hard,” he explained. “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 gonna be on your head very long.”
Trump wore a MAGA hat throughout his entire Ohio speech.
Trump biographer Michael Wolff revealed on Saturday’s Inside Trump’s Head podcast that the president carries a portable kit to fix his hair everywhere he goes.
The “patch kit” consists of “small tufts of hair that match whatever color his hair might be at the time,” said Wolff, who doesn’t know who applies the tufts to Trump’s head with “some kind of paste.” Whoever it is, the hair fixer is “next to the people with the nuclear codes,” he added.
According to Wolff, the kit dates back to Trump’s first term. “The maintenance of this hair is a major enterprise and has been for many years,” he noted.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
