Orange is the new blue.
President Biden is making his case to voters that he has the strength and vitality to serve another four years as president — by trying to look more like his 2024 GOP rival, former President Trump.
Since his catastrophic — and painfully pale — debate performance two weeks ago, Biden, 81, has taken on Trump’s trademark copper hue, experts told The Post.
“It kind of gives him more of a sun-kissed, alive, terra-cotta Mediterranean, healthy look,” observed Irina Gottesman, founder of skincare line House of Gro.
“Everyone looks better with a little color.”
Biden’s naturally pale Hibernian hue was strikingly aglow in appearances almost immediately after the debate, including his sitdown with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos last week, which did nothing to silence mushrooming questions about his cognitive health. At a NATO press conference in Washington D.C. Thursday, a bronzed Biden referred to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy as “President Putin” and said he was running for re-election alongside “Vice President Trump.”
The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Biden also appears to be adopting a more Trump-like campaign strategy– by actually making public appearances instead of a redux of his 2020 “basement” campaign.
“They are doing everything they can to try and show that Biden is as strong and mentally aware as Donald Trump and every time they try they are failing,” said Erin Perrine, a veteran of Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign.
What to know about the fallout from President Biden’s debate performance:
- President Biden’s poor performance in the first 2024 presidential debate left some Democrats unsure of his fitness for office and future as the party’s candidate.
- Biden told a crowd at a North Carolina rally the day after the debate that he doesn’t “debate as well as I used to” — but insisted that he can still “do this job.”
- The New York Times editorial board called on the president to serve the country by dropping out of the race. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a similar editorial a day later.
- In a pre-taped interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos, Biden claimed that his “bad episode” at the debate was the result of a cold and not any cognitive issues.
- Biden has rejected calls for him to step down from fellow Democrats, insisting to Stephanopoulos that he is the most qualified to win the election. At a Wisconsin rally, he declared that he is “running and going to win again.”
- More than a dozen congressional Democrats have joined in calling for Biden’s exit from the race. Former Biden supporter George Clooney echoed these calls in an op-ed published in the New York Times just weeks after he helped lead a record-breaking fundraiser for the Democrat.
- Democratic voters have continued to raise concerns about Biden’s nomination since the debate, with speculations and suggestions for replacement nominees running rampant.
Biden continues to face growing calls from Democrats to leave the presidential race in favor of a younger candidate, with allies such as George Clooney turning his back on the president and saying it’s time to call it quits. Biden has remained defiant, arguing that he is the best candidate to take on Trump and that only “Lord Almighty” will drive him from the race.
“With any of these guys who don’t think I should run — run against me. Go ahead, announce for president. Challenge me at the convention,” Biden said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”