Mar-a-Lago face: the Maga plastic surgery trend crossing party lines

Going that extra step to please those in power is nothing new, but under Donald Trump it may have been taken to the next level.

The “Mar-a-Lago face” has become a must-have accessory for the US president’s inner circle, as “both the leader and followers compete to inject as much unsightliness as possible into the American field of vision”, said Salon.

The Maga aesthetic embraced by some high-profile supporters leaves faces “so fake-looking, it’s uncanny – as if an AI image generator had replaced a person with an exaggerated version of themselves”.

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What is Mar-a-Lago face?

Mar-a-Lago face – named after Trump's Palm Beach resort – “refers to a recognisable combination of facial features and plastic surgery enhancements, often modelled after Ivanka Trump’s signature look”, plastic surgeon Matthew J. Nykiel told HuffPost.

The key features are high, firm, overfilled cheeks, taut skin, an elevated hairline, full lips, well-defined eyebrows, wide almond-shaped eyes, a strong jawline, a narrow-bridged nose and very white teeth. Achieving the look typically involves a combination of surgical procedures and injectables, including veneers, botox, a facelift, eyelid surgery. laser treatments and fillers.

“However, getting these procedures is only the beginning”, said HuffPost. “Without regular maintenance, Mar-a-Lago face starts to disappear quickly.”

The Magaland signature look does not come cheap. While the number of procedures required will vary, the initial work could cost upwards of $90,000 (£66,500), Nykiel told HuffPost, with upkeep costing hundreds of dollars each month.

Who has got it and why?

There are several key members of the Trump administration who appear to have adopted the Mar-a-Lago face. This “shift in the appearance” could be “down to a desire to please” a president who is long thought to have “a preference for attractive subordinates”, said the Daily Mail.

Last year, it was reported that South Dakota governor Kristi Noem had had her teeth straightened in the hope it would improve her chances of landing a top job in Trump’s team. Noem was subsequently named Secretary of Homeland Security.

“It’s all about her appeal to an audience of one,” Republican strategist Ron Bonjean told The New York Times. “She is showing him she works well in front of the camera, that she has that star power he wants on stage with him, while fitting into the mode of women in the Trump universe.”

Noem is rumoured to have had further “work” and was portrayed in a recent “South Park” episode with her face melting off her body, “in a jab at her alleged plastic surgeries”, said the Daily Mail. But her altered appearance may in fact be more down to a “change of style”, two plastic surgeons told the paper. While Noem has likely undergone “subtle tweaks using botox to banish wrinkles and filler to plump her cheeks and lips”, neither thought she had gone under the knife for a major procedure, ascribing her changed appearance to large, fake eyelashes, restyled hair and heavier makeup.

Nor is the trend confined to just women. Maga men have also reportedly gone under the knife in an effort to win favour in Washington DC. Like their female counterparts, the likes of former Florida congressman Matt Gaez have adopted the “slick frozen faces”, said Arwa Mahdawi in The Guardian, “but instead of bigger lips they’re pairing them with bigger jaws”.

Politico reported that “among the political power set, jaws are currently hot”, with Dr Tina Alster, a dermatologist who treats high-powered patients, telling the news site the number of her male clients seeking well-defined jaws has more than doubled in the past two years. “Strong jawlines and prominent chins are de rigueur in Washington”, she said.

As others follow the elite-Maga lead, Mar-a-Lago face could be seen as part of “broader efforts to force strict gender norms” onto the electorate, with an “aesthetic” that is, “like Trump’s politics, ridiculously blunt”, said Mother Jones. Social conservatism comes with “pressure to perform gender in hyperbolic ways”, said Salon, to a point where some Trump acolytes “look like cartoon versions of ‘man’ and ‘woman’, instead of regular people”.

Crossing party lines… and seas

“As with everything Trump, the look represents a brash departure from well-established D.C. norms,” said The Hollywood Reporter. But maybe not for long. The Daily Beast said “it’s becoming apparent that ‘Mar-a-Lago face’ is crossing party lines”.

“Everybody gets some tweaking”, dermatologist Tina Alster, who counts former House speaker Nancy Pelosi and CNN news anchor Wolf Blitzer among her patients, told The Hollywood Reporter last year.

While, in Hollywood, there is a “growing trend” for stars to “dissolve their fillers for a more natural look” and an “increasing demand for less invasive, minimalist procedures”, those embracing Mar-a-Lago face “are doing the opposite”, said The Independent.

While Maga beauty “may seem like an American export, its logic is already seeping into Britain’s own political and cultural bloodstream”, said Marie Claire’s beauty editor Nessa Humayun. From the “glossy image management” of rising Conservative MPs to the “tradwife revival on TikTok”, the “equation of beauty with virtue and polish with power is firmly taking root on this side of the Atlantic”.

“The same ideology pulses through the UK far-right ‘protect our girls’ rhetoric – an ostensibly chivalric slogan with racial undertones and themes of patriarchal control.”

“Every beauty trend has its moment”, said Yahoo Life, and this trend’s longevity rests on “whether society continues to reward the aesthetics of power” over the “aesthetics of authenticity”. Meanwhile, the look “isn’t going anywhere”; it’s “too deeply woven into the fabric of elite spaces”.