The US president was boarding Air Force One on a trip to his golf resort at Mar-A-Lago in Florida when disaster struck.
His elaborate hairstyle, intended to cover shortcomings, has previously been unkindly described as a “bin lid of barbershop sweepings”, a “cat’s sicked-up hairball”, and an “abandoned nest”.
It is an open secret that Mr Trump frets about losing his remaining locks.
Presidential cover-up strategies have been hotly debated, with scalp reduction surgery, a weave and a trusty toupee all mooted as possibilities.
After a medical last year, his doctor announced the 71-year-old takes the hair-loss drug finasteride which has been linked to loss of sexual function and depression.
And daughter Ivanka often mocks his hair.
According to New York Magazine, she has told friends her father’s head is an “absolutely clean pate, a contained island after scalp-reduction surgery, surrounded by a furry circle of hair around the sides… drawn up to meet and then swept back and secured by a stiffening spray”