THE BRUTAL AESTHETICS OF MAGA

Proximity to power might rely on a specific look.

- INAE OH

ILLUSTRATION BY MATTHIEU BOUREL IN THE EARLY morning hours of January 28, as dozens of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrived in New York to round up undocumented immigrants, a shimmering Kristi Noem appeared in the Bronx. She wore a bulletproof vest and a baseball cap, but also dramatic makeup and her hair coiled to show off a set of pearl earrings. “We are getting the dirtbags off these streets,” the new Homeland Security secretary said in a three-second clip she posted to social media.

The operation seemed designed for maximum coverage, despite actual goals achieved. (While Trump officials claim operations round up felons, many of the migrants arrested by ICE so far have no criminal record.) Still, Noem would later tell CBS News that the raid was not about creating a “spectacle” of fear. Instead, she said the government simply sought “transparency.” But was that all? Here was a top-ranking Trump appointee asserting the absence of performance after a theatrical show of force. That Noem tagged along for the predawn crackdown in the full glam of a Real Housewife made the claim even more absurd.

Noem is one of several figures—a few men, but mostly women—in Donald Trump's orbit to undergo striking physical transformations. As the boundaries that once delineated celebrity and political power fully disintegrate, a resulting look has come into vogue. It’s been dubbed Mar-a-Lago face.

TikTok is full of videos critiquing this “conservative girl makeup”: overlined lips, unblended foundation, spray tan, thick eye makeup. But the most jarring aspect of this MAGA stage-craft is the unbridled embrace of face-altering procedures, including plastic surgery, extreme Botox, fillers, and veneers. At the 2024 Republican National Convention, several high-profile conservatives took the stage looking utterly transformed.