The real reason Trump's suits never fit properly

Image is, if not everything, a very big deal when it comes to political titans.

The world’s leaders need to look slick, they need to look commanding, they need to look, at the very least, serious.

And yet, Donald Trump – the erstwhile president of the most powerful country on Earth who’s hoping to take up the mantle again – looks, as one men’s magazine put it, like he “gets dressed in the dark”.

Forget his particular brand of orange fake tan and fluffy yellow bird’s nest of a combover, the real eyesore when it comes to Trump’s general look is the cut of his suits.

The 78-year-old MAGA Commander-in-chief could easily afford the services of the best tailors in the business, and yet, his wardrobe choices appear to have been crafted by five-year-old kids.

Oversized jackets, wide-legged trousers and bizarrely long ties are his go-tos, giving him the appearance of a strangely proportioned puppet.

According to the Telegraph, the former POTUS sticks to the mantra “the baggier the better”, when it comes to his ensembles.

And whilst bespoke suits are, by definition, expertly suited to their wearer’s frame, Trump clearly instructs his tailors to make them blousier and larger than necessary – from jacket to trouser leg.

Trump's suits stick almost exclusively to a "patriotic" red, blue and white colour scheme(Getty Images)

“You’d think Donald Trump would have exhausted his options for completely ruining his suits,” Esquire magazine despaired in 2017. “They’re way, way too big for him.

“The fabric is too shiny…he even tapes his damn ties together. It seems abundantly clear that the President of the United States gets dressed in the dark.”

Furthermore, fellow Republican Chris Christie, who ran against Trump in 2016 and 2024 as the party’s presidential candidate, revealed that the former Apprentice host feels that long ties make him look slimmer.

The problem is, his ties take “long” to a new level – extending beyond the belt and waistline which, as the Telegraph notes, serves only to drag his entire frame down.

Likewise, as the paper’s style editor Stephen Doig points out: “The diminutive tie knot [Trump] chooses chokes his throat and creates an ageing effect on his neck.”

So why does Trump continue to dress in this sartorially sacrilegious way?

Well, he clearly just believes that big suits, shoulder pads and long ties genuinely look good and he won’t listen to anyone who says otherwise.

After all, if there’s anything we’ve learnt about the former real estate magnate over the years, it’s that Donald thinks what he thinks and does what he wants, and good luck to anyone hoping to change his mind.

Still, the question remains: does what he wears ultimately matter?

And the answer, according to Doig, is a resounding yes, especially when you throw his running mate JD Vance into the mix.

JD Vance was brutally mocked for likening this photo of him surrounded by cronies, also in ill-fitting or mismatched suits, to something out of the hit series 'Entourage'(@JDVance/X)

“It feeds into their image and how they present themselves to the American public,” he writes.

“At a time when they’re fighting off accusations that they’re just plain weird [...] the ill-fitting clothes and inability to dress in a relatable way feeds into that narrative.

“They dress like Batman villains, exaggerated caricatures of what makes an ‘alpha’ man.”

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