A missing necktie gave photographers on the tarmac an unobstructed view of exactly where the president’s makeup stops and his neck begins.
President Donald Trump, 80, took questions from reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, before boarding Air Force One in a dress shirt with no necktie and the collar left open, and the pictures showed a sharp line where his face makeup ended and a paler neck began.
His right hand carried a large patch of ill-matched cover-up while he answered questions on the tarmac. Chip Somodevilla of Getty Images and Kent Nishimura of AFP via Getty Images both captured the contrast.
What the Aspirin Does Not Explain
The White House has repeated one explanation for the hand bruises: frequent handshaking while taking aspirin. That account does not cover photographs showing bruising on both hands. A memorandum dated July 17, 2025, from presidential physician Sean Barbabella attributed earlier minor bruising to the same handshakes-and-aspirin combination.
The Line Returns in Lubbock
Trump was flying to two Texas campaign rallies, in Corpus Christi and Lubbock. Hours later, he appeared at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center with the same band of color around his neck. Reuters photographs by Kaylee Greenlee and Kevin Lamarque showed a lighter area at his hairline as he leaned toward state Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican Senate candidate, with his eyes, brow and chin only lightly tanned. He was campaigning there for Paxton and for incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott.
The schedule has been punishing. Trump returned to the White House from a rally in Corinth, Miss., just before midnight Monday, Oct. 26, and climbed back aboard Air Force One the next morning. He has held rallies nearly every day as Republicans fight to hold their House and Senate majorities.
Both Texas contests are tight enough to justify the travel. A University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll released Oct. 13 put Democrat James Talarico at 50% to Paxton’s 47% in the Senate race, and Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa at 49% to Abbott’s 48% in the governor’s race. The survey reached 861 likely voters from Sept. 25 through Oct. 5 and carried a margin of error of 3.34 points.
Trump voiced confidence in Paxton before boarding 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.
Needling Ossoff Over Makeup Spending
The subject is one Trump himself raised earlier in the month. At an Oct. 16 rally at Dalton Municipal Airport in Dalton, Ga., he needled Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., over his campaign’s spending on professional makeup services while campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Mike Collins and gubernatorial hopeful Rick Jackson.
Trump said, miming the application with his hands, “Jon Ossoff has spent more money on makeup, and by the way I wear very little and I do it myself.”
The Ossoff campaign has paid Atlanta-based makeup artist Stephanie Ponder nearly $3,000, with later totals exceeding $4,600, for makeup services since February 2026.
Half-Moons Under the Eyes
Trump has long relied on a mix of tanning, bronzer and makeup for his signature look, and since returning for a second term he has regularly used cosmetics to cover the tops of his frequently bruised hands. Writers have noted the complexion for years.
Kriss Blevens, a professional makeup artist who has prepped every president since Jimmy Carter, has said his face sometimes appeared darker than the rest of him before any product went on. Blevens has attributed that to self-tanners.
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.”
Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former White House aide, claimed in her 2018 memoir “Unhinged” that Trump fired a staff member for improperly setting up a White House tanning bed. David Smith, Trump’s former military academy roommate, has recalled Elvis Presley and Johnny Mathis albums playing, an ultraviolet light bulb screwed into an overhead socket, and Trump lying down for a tan.
