Whether he’s building a real estate empire or serving as the nation’s president, Donald Trump’s blond comb-over has long stood as a defining element of his public persona.
Now 80, Trump spent the summer unveiling a sequence of hairstyles and looks, apparently aimed at masking perceived signs of aging and weight gain.
His evolving appearance has sparked widespread speculation about what lies beneath the surface of his public image.
His on-air tormentors, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel, have taken turns highlighting what they perceive as the absurdity of his appearance.
He recently spoke candidly about thinning hair, acknowledging a bald spot near the crown during a recent onstage appearance.
‘Behold That’: Trump’s brutal zoom-ins commandeer the big screen, then he grows flustered trying to explain what everyone just saw
While glancing at a large screen during the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention in Dallas, he said he needed to improve the coverage in the back.
Trump also admitted, “I don’t like that little skin that’s showing,” prompting laughter from the audience. His explanation failed to quiet the jokes that lingered online for weeks.
Fallon, 51, aimed his jabs at the president in a clip circulating from The Tonight Show. After passing the spotlight to Rosie O’Donnell, Kimmel, 58, returned from hiatus that same day and used his monologue to mock Trump.
Both late-night hosts skewered the president on the same night: Sept. 8. Like many, Fallon couldn’t resist Trump’s “darker hairstyle,” which shifted from gray to blonde to brown in a matter of weeks.
“That’s what happens when you hire the Reflecting Pool folks to dye your hair,” he quipped. The remark directly referenced the no-bid contractors hired to repair the Reflecting Pool, which remains damaged.
Fallon leaned further into the hair jokes by noting, “Yeah, well, it all made a little more sense when I saw this commercial.”
He then aired a spoof ad for a Trump-endorsed “Just for Men: Touch of Cray” hair dye.
Like his late-night counterpart, the host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” did not hold back.
Kimmel dedicated several minutes to recapping various presidential controversies over the past two months. He criticized the president over the unpopular Iran war, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool fiasco, and the Natalie Harp scandal.
His sharpest quips targeted Trump’s hair, noting, “It seems like the only thing he got done was his hair. I’m not sure if you saw this, but the leaves are changing colors, and so is the president’s head,” Kimmel quipped about Trump.
The world watched Trump undergo numerous hair transformations. A trip to Las Vegas in early August was overshadowed by the author of The Art of the Deal appearing with a fuller head of hair.
Soon after, rumors that the notoriously image-conscious politician wore a wig spread across the internet. He quickly returned to his typical thinning-hair look.
Two weeks later, Trump unveiled another dramatic shift when he rolled out a new “side part” at a White House event. The hair transformation did not end there.
He vehemently denied the toupee accusations on Sept. 2, telling a gathering of GOP officials at the White House, “I don’t wear a wig.”
Trump debuted yet another striking change just days later. On Sept. 4, cameras caught the New York City native in New Jersey sporting a drastically darker brunette shade.
Social media erupted with analysis of the president’s constant metamorphosis. Fallon finally got a chance to rib Trump again after his time away from the airwaves.
“Is it possible to have a midlife crisis at 80?” Kimmel asked his studio audience on Tuesday night. “It’s like he’s aging in reverse. He’s our very own ‘Benjamin Glutton.’”
He also mentioned reports suggesting that a staffer has a kit full of hair patches to apply to his head as needed.
“There’s a real-life White House head patcher,” Kimmel added about the unsubstantiated rumors.
By early September, he was seen sporting a hat to cover what many suspect are bald spots and thin patches of hair.
Fans of both Fallon and Kimmel expressed excitement that both men are back on television to challenge Trump. Online commenters reveled in the fresh humor at the president’s expense.
“Trump gives comedians so much free material to work with… Trump makes it so easy that it’s hardly work,” wrote a commenter reacting to the Brooklyn-born entertainer’s latest bit.
Kimmel’s supporters also thanked him for his return this week. The “Jimmy Kimmel Live” community on YouTube rallied behind the Brooklyn-born host.
“Welcome back Jimmy. We missed you badly,” read one comment. A second person on the site wrote, “A breath of sanity. Thank you.”
