A photo editor went viral on Instagram and later Twitter (previously X) with a bronzer theory regarding Donald Trump.
The viral social media theory explains how the former President Trump’s bronzer use seems to escalate when he’s ‘stressed,’ especially in the days leading up to the election.
Photo editor Emily Keegin first shared the theory with her 281,000 Instagram followers in a multi-part carousel showcasing pictures as proof that after Trump first began wearing makeup on The Apprentice, his usage kept up and later escalated.
An X user then shared screenshots with the message, ‘A photographer I follow on Instagram has put together that his bronzer use amps up when he’s stressed / close to an election and is tied to his days in the rise of reality TV, and it’s fascinating.’
The concept quickly went viral, receiving 758 replies and 16,000 retweets.
‘His inconsistency with it is the more interesting thing to me,’ the X user shared.
In the original Instagram theory, Emily explained that she thought Trump’s ‘makeup choices were simply made for a TV audience,’ until recently.
‘We need* to talk about the bronzer,’ Emily wrote on Instagram, before explaining she’s noticing his skin tone ‘tends to oscillate wildly depending on lighting and the color palette of the photographer.’
The photo editor shared pictures from when he took office in 2017 and said he was ‘significantly less orange’ at the time.
‘The more stressed…more makeup,’ she explained, showcasing pictures of him in court with a darker skin tone.
Emily then shared a picture of Trump, 78, following his debate with Biden, 81, where he did not seem to be bronze at all.
However, she shared a photo from October 30, where his bronzer appeared darker than ever, as well as one from his Madison Square Garden rally.
‘He’s usually darkest in October,’ Emily explained, which coincides with his presidential campaign.
She likened it to ‘eyebrow blindness,’ a trend on TikTok where people didn’t realize their brows didn’t look right at the time, likening it to a dysphoric state.
The photo expert also pointed out that the presidential candidate seemed to start using bronzer in January 2004, when he first started appearing on The Apprentice.
The businessman would have gotten used to wearing makeup on reality television, and brought the look to his subsequent public appearances.
Former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson once claimed he stopped wearing masks because they smeared his bronzer.
Emily and Cassidy aren’t the only ones who have commented on Trump’s evolving complexion, which has become an ongoing debate as people wonder if he spray tans or uses a tanning bed.
Former aide Omarosa Manigault-Newman even claimed he had a tanning bed installed in the White House residence, although an insider later denied those claims to DailyMail.com.
After the GOP nominee appeared in an orange vest at his rally in Wisconsin, social media users pointed out that he kept ‘getting more orange’ over the course of his presidential campaign.
Some even comparing him to the Oompa-Loompas from the film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
‘Trump evolves into his final, neon orange form!’ one person wrote on social media at the time.
