'Freaky Tattoos': What Donald Trump Reportedly Said About Nancy Mace's Ink

When Nancy Mace unveiled nine tattoos this month to launch her YouTube show, the reaction came from everywhere at once: Reddit, the New York Post, Joyce Carol Oates. But one of the earliest reviews, it turns out, had already been delivered months earlier, and it came from the president.

According to South Carolina's FITSNews, Donald Trump had taken an interest in Mace's ink well before the public reveal. The outlet reported that Trump "previously" told a group of South Carolina politicos, "last December," that he'd heard the maverick Republican had several "freaky tattoos." The two-word take resurfaced in August 2026, aggregated by Staten Island's silive.com under the headline "Trump's smarmy 2-word take on Nancy Mace's tattoos resurfaces after new body ink reveal," and picked up from there by The Mirror US and others.

Reporting credit: The "freaky tattoos" line was reported by FITSNews (Will Folks), attributed to the outlet's own unnamed sources ("according to our sources"). It was resurfaced and aggregated in August 2026 by silive.com, The Mirror US, and Internewscast, all linked below. Maceopedia has not independently confirmed the remark, and neither Trump nor Mace has publicly addressed it.

Donald Trump. FITSNews reported that he told South Carolina political figures last December he'd heard Mace had several "freaky tattoos." The White House has not commented; the remark is attributed to unnamed sources.

What FITSNews reported

In its August 16, 2026 piece "Tattooed Nancy Mace Teases Talk Show," FITSNews founding editor Will Folks wrote that the president "has previously taken an interest in Mace's ink," and that Trump was "reportedly telling a group of South Carolina politicos last December that he'd heard the maverick Republican had several 'freaky tattoos.'"

That is the whole of it: a two-word phrase, in quotation marks, sourced to unnamed South Carolina political figures who say the president used it. FITSNews did not name those sources, and there is no recording or transcript of the alleged remark. It is a report of a private comment, not a captured quote, and it should be read that way. What is verifiable is that FITSNews published it, and that it traveled.

Why it traveled: the reveal

The reason a December aside became an August story is timing. On August 16, 2026, Mace launched a YouTube talk show, "GET MACED," with promotional footage that showed her poolside and sleeveless, displaying nine tattoos she had largely kept covered during her years in Congress. The reveal became a wall-to-wall media event: an aggregator post about it cleared 17.8 million views in a day, and outlets from the New York Post to Newsweek to the Daily Beast ran versions of the same story. (Maceopedia catalogued the reaction here.)

With the ink finally on full display, an old line from the most powerful person in her party read very differently. What had been a throwaway bit of Columbia gossip in December was, by August, a headline: the president himself had, per the reporting, called them "freaky."

Mace's own account of the tattoos

For her part, Mace has described the tattoos on her own terms. In a February 2026 Politico Magazine profile by Michael Kruse, she said she got the nine tattoos "in rapid succession" for "the pain that I need to feel," and told the reporter, "So my story is I am totally broken." The visible pieces, catalogued across her own photos and footage, include the opening line of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, the word "JUSTICE," a robed saint figure, a lion, a rose cluster, a sun, and the shoulder bird she has since confirmed is a hawk.

When the coverage crested, Mace pushed back at the volume of it rather than the substance. "Thoughts and prayers to all those affected by my sleeves," she posted on August 17. "My biceps should NOT be a news story." She has not, as of this writing, responded to the reported Trump line specifically.

A note on framing

The "freaky tattoos" remark is a report of a private comment, attributed by FITSNews to unnamed sources and not confirmed by the White House or by Mace. Maceopedia reproduces it as reported, with that caveat attached, in keeping with this site's practice of cataloguing the public record and attributing every characterization to the outlet or person who made it. The tattoos themselves are ones Mace has publicly acknowledged and repeatedly posted as her own. Readers can weigh a two-word aside sourced to anonymous politicos for exactly what it is.

---

Related on Maceopedia:

• Hub: Nancy Mace's Tattoos: The Full Catalog, the record of every tattoo on the public record.
• Dispatch: Nancy Mace's Tattoo Reveal Is Getting Killed in the Comments
• Dispatch: "Thoughts and prayers to all those affected by my sleeves"
• Dispatch: "Hawk but same difference": Nancy Mace names the bird on her shoulder

---

Sources & related coverage:

• FITSNews, Will Folks, "Tattooed Nancy Mace Teases Talk Show" (August 16, 2026; the "freaky tattoos" report).
• silive.com, "Trump's smarmy 2-word take on Nancy Mace's tattoos resurfaces after new body ink reveal" (August 2026; the aggregation that resurfaced it).
• The Mirror US, "Donald Trump's creepy reaction to Nancy Mace's new tattoos revealed".
• Internewscast, "Nancy Mace Reveals All Nine Tattoos, and Trump's Reaction".
• Politico Magazine, Michael Kruse, "Nancy Mace: The Origin Story" (February 27, 2026; the nine tattoos and "the pain that I need to feel").

---

The "freaky tattoos" line is reproduced as reported by FITSNews and attributed to that outlet's unnamed sources; it has not been confirmed by Donald Trump, the White House, or Nancy Mace. The tattoos shown are ones Mace has publicly acknowledged as her own. Maceopedia catalogs the public record about Nancy Mace and adopts no characterization of her health.