Daily US Times, Washington: A photo of Donald Trump’s tan-face took the internet in storm. It got another momentum when the president himself made a comment on the issue.
An unverified account naming the White House posted the photo of Trump walking on the South Lawn of the White House grounds on Friday.
The Trump photo shows wind blew the President’s hair backward on his head as the photo was taken — and revealed what appeared to be a dark layer of make-up (or self-tanner) around Trump’s face and abruptly ending at his jawline. Dark and then, suddenly, stark white.
It could go away as like many other things on the internet, but it didn’t — you guessed it! Trump himself responded to it.
He wrote about the picture on his Twitter feed: “More Fake News. This was photoshopped, obviously, but the wind was strong and the hair looks good? Anything to demean!”
So what is the truth? CNN hunt for the real truth as two sides were not wholly sure about it. A journalist of the network went looking for a photo of the same moment from another photographer — or as close to it as I could find. And this is what turned up — a picture taken from a slightly different angle by Michael Reynolds for EPA-EFE/Shutterstock. Here is the photo.
The photo was not the exact replica of the posted photo and he could not find the exact picture that was tweeted around over the weekend. So, Chris Cillizza, the journalist said it’s hard to say whether Trump’s claim of a photo-shopping is accurate.
A black and white version of the photo was tweeted by photographer William Moon, who responded to Trump saying on Twitter, “This picture was never photoshopped, but used the Apple smartphone’s photo app to adjust the color of the picture.”
In both of the pictures, it is clear that the front side of Trump’s front side is darker than his neck, hairline and ears. But is there any possibility of Trump being slightly darker in the photo that was tweeted than in the original? Maybe? But that also could be simply the background — green vs. black — that is different.
It is clear from Reynolds’s image that Trump’s face has two layers, but is it heavy makeup or is it tan?
Last year, a senior administration official who spoke to The New York Times described the lines as ‘glow’ and as a result of “good genes” and some “translucent powder” that the President applies himself before television appearances.
Rumors of a tanning bed in the White House have been dismissed by those in the know but talk of self-tanner continues to kick around. New York Times quoted a Washington dermatologist saying that her professional opinion is that Trump uses some sort of self-tanning cream or lotion.
Trump’s ‘glow’ has been mentioned in the 2020 presidential race even before the photo controversy of this past weekend.
In a response to Trump’s attack on him, former New York City Mayor and White House hopeful Michael Bloomberg’s spokesman shot back: “The President lies about everything: his fake hair, his obesity, and his spray-on tan.”