Mar-a-Lago face: the hottest Maga plastic surgery trend
Trump supporters driven by 'desire to please the President-elect' but phenomenon now 'crossing party line'
It has become the latest must-have "accessory" for Donald Trump's more high-profile supporters. The cosmetic phenomenon dubbed "Mar-a-Lago face" has "seemingly swept the political world overnight, with its trademark fillers and razor-sharp cheekbones already making their way to the corridors of Capitol Hill ahead of Trump's inauguration in January", said the Daily Beast.
Defined by "copious use of Botox, a Miami-bronze tan, puffy lips and silky-smooth skin" plastic surgeons told the Daily Mail the trend was "giving Trumpland an almost 'plastic' and 'Real Housewives' look".
Who has got it?
Several women in Donald Trump's inner circle are reported to have recently undergone cosmetic procedures, said The Hollywood Reporter. Some men are also allegedly getting in on the act.
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When he was briefly named as Trump's pick for US Attorney General, Matt Gaetz's "ultra-manicured brows" and line-less forehead led some to "speculate that the congressman’s beauty came with the help of an aesthetician", said Vanity Fair.
Earlier this 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 the next administration. Noem has since been nominated as the next Secretary of Homeland Security.
"It's all about her appeal to an audience of one," Republican strategist Ron Bonjean told the 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."
The Daily Mail said "the shift in the appearance of Trump's closest aides could be down to a desire to please the President-elect, who has been accused of having a preference for attractive subordinates". This is despite a report in The Atlantic that Trump is "generally appalled by plastic surgery".
Crossing party lines
"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 Nancy Pelosi and CNN's Wolf Blitzer among her patients, told The Hollywood Reporter. Her verdict? "Kamala has been maintaining for a long time, Biden's Botox is sometimes overdone, Trump has a ruddy complexion that needs some tending to." However, the news site stressed it had "not confirmed any of these public servants' cosmetic regimens".
A report in New Scientist last year suggested that Botox treatment can affect brain activity and reduce the ability to empathise. Were he to take a leaf out of his supporters' self-care playbook, "that could mean even more unhinged moments coming from Trump", said the Daily Beast. "But he will surely look great."
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