It seems President Donald Trump is incapable of giving a public speech without straying off topic to share his thoughts on a random subject.
Throughout his second term, the 79-year-old political rabble-rouser has gone on aimless tangents that have left viewers wondering whether his old age is rapidly catching up with him.
One of Trump’s latest off-the-cuff remarks came during his address to the National Governors Association dinner in the White House’s State Dining Room on Feb. 21.
First lady Melania Trump served as a co-host for the annual event alongside her husband. Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance were in attendance as well.
After touting his impact on the economy and praising the American military, the president specifically pointed out Utah Gov. Spencer Cox in the audience.
That shout-out to Cox, 50, transitioned into Trump insisting he would work to save Utah’s Great Salt Lake, which is reportedly losing massive amounts of water, causing an environmental crisis.
“We’re going to save it. We’re not going to let that go,” Trump told the gathering of the governors in Washington.
The polarizing MAGA leader then drifted into an unexpected detour about the layer of the atmosphere that protects the planet from the sun’s ultraviolet rays — before somehow pivoting into a baffling bathroom anecdote that left listeners visibly confused and social media scrambling to figure out how he got there.
“That is what I call a real environmental problem, not using hairspray. And I’m going to ruin the ozone, OK?” Trump stated.
He resumed, “I’m in my apartment in Trump Tower. The building is totally sealed off. And if I use hairspray, they say, ‘Sir, you’re creating an environmental hazard.’”
UV rays can cause medical issues such as skin cancer, so the protection provided by the ozone layer is essential to fend off health issues in humans and animals.
Ozone depletion was primarily caused by human-made chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) found in aerosol propellants like hairsprays and spray paints, as well as coolants like refrigeration and air conditioning. Countries around the world collectively agreed to ban CFCs in 1987.
The president’s complaint to the governors about not being able to use harmful CFC products on his signature orange-blond comb-over was met with ridicule online.
“Trump is ranting about hairspray ‘destroying the ozone’ like it’s still 1975. CFCs were banned decades ago. Modern aerosols aren’t the problem,” expressed an X user.
The tweet continued, “This man is governing off expired talking points and half-remembered cable news from 50 years ago. And somehow we’re supposed to trust him with the future. What a joke.”
Other people on the social media app joined in on clowning Trump over his impromptu comments about hairspray at the National Governors Association dinner.
For instance, one individual jokingly replied, “Knowing Trump, he has a stash of tons of Aquanet made in the 1970s stockpiled.”
A third person posted, “For him, it probably is 1975 when it comes to hairspray. The rest of the day for him? It’s 1933.”
“What kind of an 80-year-old man still uses f–king hairspray on their hair?” wondered a confused commenter.
Another reply to the clip of Trump’s speech read, “He uses so much hairspray his hair looks like an orange helmet.”
Trump’s late mother, Mary Anne Trump, who passed away in August 2000 at 88 years old, also caught strays. An image of her from a 1997 interview with the Australian TV network Foxtel resurfaced.
“Well, if any family knows about hairspray, it’s the #Trump family,” wrote another critic of the POTUS, along with an unflattering screengrab of Mary Trump’s beehive-like hairstyle from the Foxtel segment.
Trump being obsessed with his hair should not come as a surprise to anyone who has paid attention to the former reality television star over the past five decades.
Since becoming a public figure in the 1980s as a New York City-bred real estate mogul and socialite, the ex-host of “The Apprentice” has been preoccupied with public perception about his image.
In 2017, Trump’s personal physician since 1980, Dr. Harold N. Bornstein, revealed that his famous patient was taking finasteride medication to treat male-pattern baldness, a sign that the president is very mindful about his looks.
