Photo editor Emily Elsie is among those questioning what’s really going on. Sharing her thoughts on her Instagram, she wrote: “Why is no one covering this very important data point?”

Elsie pointed to images of Trump following last year’s assassination attempt, comparing them to more recent pictures. “In July 2024, Donald Trump looked like this… And now he looks like this,” she noted, placing the two side by side.

Dramatic color shifts

At first, Elsie thought the dramatic color shifts were just a matter of photo editing or lighting. “I noticed that Trump’s skin tone tended to oscillate wildly depending on lighting and the color