Mar-a-Lago face: has Maga plastic surgery trend peaked?

Once ubiquitous in Republican circles in the US, Mar-a-Lago face, like all fashion trends, could be on the way out.

“What once felt like a dominant cultural signal now registers more as a punchline or perhaps a relic of a particularly loud political moment”, said Salon.

What is Mar-a-Lago face?

Mar-a-Lago face – named after Trump's Florida 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.

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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?

In recent years, key members of the Trump administration, and even the first family, appear to have adopted the Mar-a-Lago face. This “shift in the appearance” has been put “down to a desire to please” a president who is long thought to have “a preference for attractive subordinates”, said the Daily Mail.

In 2024, 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 portrayed in a controversial “South Park” episode last year 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 surgeon thought she had gone under the knife for a major procedure, ascribing her changed appearance to large, fake eyelashes, restyled hair and heavier makeup.

The trend is not confined to 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 Gaetz have adopted “slick frozen faces”, said Arwa Mahdawi in The Guardian, “but instead of bigger lips they’re pairing them with bigger jaws”.

A strong jawline is a key element “among the political power set”, said Politico. Tina Alster, a dermatologist who treats high-powered patients, told 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.

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”.

And the look has not been confined to Republican circles. “Everybody gets some tweaking,” Alster, who counts former House speaker Nancy Pelosi and CNN news anchor Wolf Blitzer among her patients, told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s a bipartisan issue,” dermatology surgeon Anthony Rossi told USA Today.

Will it dissolve in 2026?

Mar-a-Lago face was “everywhere” at Donald and Melania Trump’s New Year’s Eve party, said Women.com. But a trend that once “seemed inescapable”, may “be losing steam”, said Salon. Searches and enquiries have slowed and there are signs of fatigue, or outright opposition, from within the US political right.

In an interview with The New York Times Magazine last month, Trump ally-turned-critic Marjorie Taylor Greene criticised what she called the “MAGA Mar-a-Logo sexualisation”. “I have two daughters, and I’ve always been uncomfortable with how these women puff up their lips and enlarge their breasts,” she said. “I believe how women in leadership present themselves sends a message to younger women.”

“Beauty trends shaped by algorithms tend to burn fast and fade faster,” said Salon, but it’s clear even the “politically charged aesthetics” of Mar-a-Lago face “aren’t immune to trend cycles”.