Fox News Anchor Brian Kilmeade's Cheeto Tan Makes Trump's Orange Glow Look Tame

If there's one good thing that we can say about Donald Trump's signature orange tan, it's that it might look much worse on anyone else. Brian Kilmeade might've proven that with a February 2025 Instagram video showing him so orange that he looked as though he needed medical attention. It seemed like the "Fox & Friends" host tried to duplicate Trump's tan to a T, describing the upcoming episode of his show while makeup artists applied unnecessary finishing touches on his glowing skin. The fluorescent lights backstage at Fox News definitely weren't doing Kilmeade's tan any favors. 

He even seemingly had the similar reverse raccoon eyes that the real-estate mogul has often sported, which a spray tan specialist felt provided clues to Trump's beauty regimen. "If I have a look around his eyes, I can almost see that he's got little goggle marks, which leads me to believe that he could possibly have his own booth, like a VersaSpa [tan machine]," spray tan specialist Suzie Casas once told Daily Mail. 

It's possible Kilmeade might've tried using the same tanning machine that Trump was speculated to have. Whether he did or not, the news anchor just ended up looking unnatural as a result. We used to think the time when Kilmeade dressed like he lost a fight was his worst fashion fail ever. But unfortunately, he seemed determined to prove everyone wrong.

President Donald Trump's tan has drastically evolved since 2016. One thing that's remained the same about his look is that it always has everyone talking. Whether Trump's putting his blotchy tan on blast in unflattering posts, or going full carrot like he once did with a botched bronzer job, there's never a dull moment when the former reality TV star is in front of a camera. So when Brian Kilmeade decided to experiment with the orange tan himself, the best-selling author got a little taste of what it was like being Trump. However, we're not sure if that was a good thing. A few netizens poked fun at Kilmeade's new look on X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2021 as if the reporter were Trump 2.0. "Trump Spray, buy one get one free," one X user quipped.

Another X user, who seemed to like Kilmeade way more than they liked Trump, begged the veteran journalist to stop with the tan before it was too late. "Most of my tweets contain a reference to an 'orange dimwit' and I can NOT have @kilmeade confusing my loyal Twitter audience with WHO exactly I'm talking about!" they wrote. 

Apparently his shirt collar got some sunburn too then pic.twitter.com/xDS2ZVqIoG

— BlueSky Bound (@EricRobinson00) June 2, 2021

Interestingly enough, an additional X user claimed that Kilmeade told viewers that his loud complexion was an accident instead of a style choice. But the reporter's story wasn't very convincing. "I was watching when Brian lied and said he got sunburned while exercising," the poster said. Another user replied to that post with a photo showing an orange-ish substance on Kilmeade's collar, likely disproving the source of his tan at the time. As evidenced by his Instagram post four years later, Kilmeade seemingly did not live and learn from his tanning mistakes.