Donald Trump's 'Weird' Ear Photo Raises Questions

Donald Trump has once again been mocked for his appearance, this time over a "weird" ear.

The former president hosted a New Year's Eve function at his expansive Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida when he was snapped in a photo by a guest at the party.

Ron Filipkowski, a former federal prosecutor and frequent Trump critic, reshared the photo to his X, formerly Twitter, account and poked fun at the Apprentice star's appearance.

"Trump last night with Dominica Ambassador to UN. Ear looks weird," Filipkowski captioned the post, incorrectly identifying the other man in the photo. The current Dominican ambassador to the United Nations is Philbert Aaron.

People in Filipkowski's replies were quick to make theories about Trump's "weird" ear, with some suggesting it was a scar from cosmetic surgery while others claimed it proved Trump was an "alien."

Newsweek has contacted Trump's representatives by email for comment.

"Looks like a face lift scar," replied one person.

Another wrote: "Is that from plastic surgery or are we talking mission impossible mask lol."

A third commented: "I was a surgical tech for cosmetic surgeons and that's what I thought."

And a fourth shared their thoughts: "He's converting back to his alien heritage."

However, a U.K.-based consultant facial surgeon said it was not clear from the photo if there were signs of procedures done to Trump's face, but there were other ways to guess.

"Without a high resolution photo it is difficult to say objectively. The very extended position of his head means that light, and therefore shadows, falls on his face differently. This is the phenomenon that medical tattooing uses or when makeup is used to alter the perceived size/shape of parts of the face/body," Andrew Douglas told Newsweek.

"I would suggest the strongest sign is the religious manner of his hair always covering the top of the ear from a minimal sideburn which would hide the most likely visible part of a scar as seen from the front."

Trump sent a New Year's message to his followers wishing them a happy new year but also sharing what the messaging would be like in his 2024 campaign.

He wished an "early New Year salutation" to his "crooked" Democrat opponent, President Joe Biden, and continued to falsely claim he lost a rigged election in 2020.

"As the New Year fast approaches, I would like to wish an early New Year's salutation to crooked Joe Biden and his group of radical left misfits and thugs on their never-ending attempt to destroy our nation through lawfare, invasion and rigging elections," he wrote on his Truth Social website.

"They are now scrambling to sign up as many of those millions of people they are illegally allowing into [our] country, in order that they will be ready to vote in the presidential election of 2024."

Trump also used a New Year's message to explain his wife Melania Trump's absence from holiday celebrations. He explained she did not appear at the party or in the family's Christmas photo because she was staying with her sick mother.

"Melania—great First Lady, so popular, the people love her—she's now in a hospital with her mother," he told partygoers at his annual bash. "Her mother, Amalija, is very ill, but hopefully she'll be recovering.

"But she's been very ill, so I just want to say 'hello' to the First Lady—we just spoke, down in Miami, great hospital—and hopefully they'll be ok, but it's a tough one, it's a very tough one. So she sends her love to everybody and she knows probably about 95 percent of the people here like I do. And we just want to wish Amalija that she gets better as quickly as possible."

Update, 01/03/24, 6:44 a.m. ET. This article was updated to include comments from Andrew Douglas.