Donald Trump has complained about new light bulbs which supposedly make him look orange and flushing toilets, during a rambling monologue.

At a small-business roundtable meeting, the president went off on a tangent about the bulbs and claimed people have to flush toilets 10 to 15 times because they “don’t get any water”.

“They got rid of the lightbulb that people got used to. The new bulb is many times more expensive and I hate to say it, it doesn’t make you look as good,” Mr Trump said.

“Of course, being a vain person, that’s very important to me. It’s like - it gives you an orange look. I don’t want an orange look.”

Although he appeared to be joking, Mr Trump has complained before about bad lighting from energy-efficient light bulbs and added on Friday that he wanted to remove the “orange” bulbs from some rooms in the White House.

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The cause of Mr Trump’s distinctive orange hue has been a much-discussed mystery of his appearance.

The official line from the White House is that Mr Trump simply has “good genes”, according to a New York Times report, but many people have suggested the president uses fake tan.

A Washington Post report published this week about undocumented workers employed at one of Mr Trump’s golf clubs offered a possible explanation.

In a section on his unusual requests for workers, the report said Mr Trump asks for two full containers and one half full container of white Tic Tacs in his bedroom at all times.

The Post added: “The same rule applied to the Bronx Colors-brand face makeup from Switzerland that Trump slathered on — two full containers, one half full — even if it meant the housekeepers had to regularly bring new shirts from the pro shop because of the rust-coloured stains on the collars.”

Soon after the article was published, Bronx Colors claimed the makeup was an orange Boosting Hydrating Concealer and offered customers a special deal on the product to celebrate the Post’s story.

Later in Mr Trump’s monologue, the president said his administration was looking “very strongly at sinks and showers” which supposedly do not produce enough water.

"You turn on the faucet; you don’t get any water. They take a shower and water comes dripping out. It’s dripping out - very quietly dripping out. People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once," he said.

"You go into a new building or a new house or a new home, and they have standards, 'Oh, you don’t get water.'"

Mr Trump added: "For the most part, you have many states where they have so much water that it comes down - it’s called rain… they don’t know what to do with it."