February 8, 2020

Trump Blames the Wind for Super-Viral Photo But Says His Hair Still Looks Good

Uh huh.

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

There are lots of photos of President Donald Trump. And there are a lot of bad, weird ones. I haven’t done the definitive analysis of this, but you and I both know that his personal quota of bad photos is higher than other very-photographed people in the world, who themselves suffer from a statistical likelihood of looking less than their best every now and then.

But occasionally, a new Trump photo goes viral that seems to distill his essential clownishness. The latest was this gem, a snap of Trump with his amateurish, undergraduate tan lines glowing under a shock of matted hair caught in the wind:

Now, it’s important to note there’s been some debate about whether or not the Twitter poster enhanced the coloring on this photo. It would only take some very basic Photoshop skills to bump up the saturation for this kind of effect. Even so, photos from the same setting published by official news agencies reveal that telltale lack of facial blending. (The version I’ve used as the main photo for this article was taken by Associated Press photographer, Manuel Balce Ceneta, as the president returned to the White House, from a trip to Charlotte, N.C. on Friday; I haven’t adjusted it at all, aside from cropping it to size.)

Not one to let a sleight slide, the president responded on Saturday afternoon in a tweet that labeled a black-and-white version of the photo “fake news”—and blamed the whole hair situation on the wind.

Lest we forget: here’s a reminder of just how viciously Trump has attacked other people for their looks, targeting women especially by using such demeaning terms as “horseface”, “fat and ugly,” and “pig.”

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

December is make or break for us. A full one-third of our annual fundraising comes in this month alone. A strong December means our newsroom is on the beat and reporting at full strength. A weak one means budget cuts and hard choices ahead.

The December 31 deadline is closing in fast. To reach our $400,000 goal, we need readers who’ve never given before to join the ranks of MoJo donors. And we need our steadfast supporters to give again today—any amount.

Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do.

That’s why we need you right now. Please chip in to help close the gap.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

December is make or break for us. A full one-third of our annual fundraising comes in this month alone. A strong December means our newsroom is on the beat and reporting at full strength. A weak one means budget cuts and hard choices ahead.

The December 31 deadline is closing in fast. To reach our $400,000 goal, we need readers who’ve never given before to join the ranks of MoJo donors. And we need our steadfast supporters to give again today—any amount.

Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do.

That’s why we need you right now. Please chip in to help close the gap.

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate