A peculiar trend is gripping the billionaire and Make America Again set: an unmistakable, uniform cosmetic surgery look dubbed ‘Mar-a-Lago face’. Named after Donald Trump’s Florida club, the aesthetic features huge lips, frozen expressions, and bulbous cheeks for women, while men favour exaggerated jawlines alongside similarly immobile visages.
This conspicuous consumption of cosmetic procedures has become a signal of wealth and in-group belonging. Observers note that figures such as Laura Loomer, Kristi Noem and Matt Gaetz could afford subtle surgery but appear to have deliberately chosen a caricature-like appearance. One theory is that they inhabit bubbles where such extremes are desirable.
The trend aligns with Trump’s reported obsession with television appearances. Axios claimed in 2017 that he wanted female staff to ‘dress like women’ and male employees to have a ‘certain look’, which has since become more pronounced. An underlying factor may be a resurgence of traditional gender norms in culturally conservative times.
Ironically, while the inner orbit opposes gender-affirming care for trans people, a New York dermatologist told Politico that they are ‘all doing their own gender-affirming care’. The phenomenon bears resemblance to a chimpanzee trend in Zambia, where one influential chimp started putting grass in its ears and sticks up its bum, and others followed – a reminder that humans have not evolved far from such social mimicry.
