- Joe Biden may be copying Donald Trump's tanning strategy.
- The president looked very tanned during a recent public appearance.
- He hasn't always been this orange, not even during his disastrous CNN debate with Trump.
You're not alone if you think President Joe Biden looks more orange than he used to.
Biden's complexion has changed significantly since the start of his term and now exudes a Trump-like glow.
The orange hues were even more apparent in an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on Friday.
He appeared more tanned than usual when he spoke on the South Lawn of the White House on July 4th.
A noticeable tan was evident in multiple photos from the event.
Biden's orange glow was also evident when he awarded the Medal of Honor to two Civil War soldiers on July 3.
The same was true on July 1, when he spoke to the media at the White House following the Supreme Court's decision on the charges against former President Donald Trump.
And the change appears to be recent: The 81-year-old president was not this orange at the start of his 2020 term.
For example, when he spoke at the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Scotland in November 2021, there was no sign of spray tanning on his face.
Biden does appear to have a light tan in the summer when the sun is out — he was lightly tanned when he spoke about affirmative action in higher education in June 2023 — but Biden's super-orange moments have been few and far between.
His facial transformation has sparked memes and jokes on social media, with X users calling him “Biden Pumpkinhead” and “Spray Tan Joe.”
“Joe, next time you should get a sorority girl from Alabama to give you a spray tan,” another X user wrote on July 1.
Moira Coups, a veteran makeup artist and stylist who has worked with numerous politicians and CEOs, told Business Insider that Biden's orange skin is more likely the result of makeup than a spray tan.
She said people of Biden's age tend to look pale, especially if they're sick or haven't seen the sun in a while, and Biden's team probably gave him a tan to make him look “healthier,” she added.
But the makeup was “a little too dark” for her liking, Koops said, adding that Biden's makeup staff “could have gone a shade darker.”
If Biden has undergone an image tweak, it is only recent: He looked very different during his debate with Trump on June 27.
His face appeared pale on CNN cameras, which, combined with his slurred speech and incoherent dialogue, raised concerns about whether he was fit to run for reelection.
After the debate, anonymous sources told Politico that the Biden family expressed outrage at the president's appearance in front of the cameras, blaming the network's makeup artists for making him look pale and haggard.
Indeed, Trump is known to be obsessed with tanning.
“He knows exactly what he's doing: he uses tanning beds, he uses spray tans, he wears goggles, he has pigmentation around his eyes,” Jason Kelly, a Cleveland-based makeup artist who was hired to work on the 2016 Republican National Convention, told Harper's Bazaar in June 2016.
Critics have also used Trump's intense sun tan as ammunition – his former fixer and now nemesis Michael Cohen once called him a “Cheetos-smothered cartoon villain”.
A representative for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside of regular business hours.
