President George W. Bush brought Westernware to the White House with him. Cowboy boots, large decorative belt buckle, and cowboy hat suit. President Barack Obama took us through the age of slim suits, and First Lady Michelle Obama helped spark the renaissance of American design.
The presidential administration always has an aesthetic. How much is it that other people on President Donald Trump's orbit, and even his grassroots supporters, have adopted the look of his administration. I explained today“Gabriel Belby said, “We assume that we will bring back old standards of beauty, masculinity and femininity, but in reality it represents a whole new era.”
This Magazine aesthetic speaks something bigger about Trump 2.0's political philosophy and policy goals. This was also the case in the first Trump administration. I spoke to Belby to understand what it was. I explained today All podcasts about Maga Beauty Standards. The conversations edited for length and clarity can be found below.
What do you think about your report on Maga Aesthetics? When you hear that phrase, a particular image comes to mind.
What's the look that comes to mind for you?
It's very gendered. For men, neither perfectly clean shaved or bearded, there is nothing in between. Hair is harvested at the sides, but it becomes longer at the top. Bulky builds, like you've been to the gym a lot. It may be made from high-tech fabric, paired with jeans and chinos and some kind of boots, but the short-sleeved shirt is probably a combat boot.
Combat boots too? Are they Magazine now?
Haha, yeah, I feel like I've seen a lot of that. And for women, I think I would say long, wavy hair, very complete lips, a sheathed dress with an equipped but professional and very defined brows.
The hair is definitely elastic. What you're describing is what we want to see in our episodes. It has a very prominent, artificial confounding appearance that many people in Trump's immediate orbit seem to have.
When reporting the show, I focused on two different looks that spoke the same phenomenon.
Fox News Women and Trump Trajectories have certain styles of makeup that women seem to like. Some of the things you mentioned include: blocky brows that feel very defined, bold eyeliner, and more.
But beyond makeup, there are people who appear to have had very visible plastic surgery – both women and men, especially women.
We see a very obvious level of facial changes that are different from the types of plastic surgery seen just a few years ago.
To be clear, no one on Trump orbit came out and said he had undergone plastic surgery. Of those often pointed out as examples of this facial aesthetic, like Christie Noem, Laura Rumer, Lara Trump, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Matt Gaetz, only Noem recognizes work and only dental work.
We spoke with a reporter from Mother Jones Inae Ohio. Who was peering into this quite a bit and actually sat in the problem. Why do you see what appears to be truly dramatic plastic surgery around Trump? She then explored the question of whether proximity to power, in particular to Trump, depends on a very specific look.
It reminds us of a phrase we often hear from Trump over the years – the candidate or politician he likes is “straight” to “Central casting. ”
Yes, that phrase reminds me that Trump comes from the real-life television world, and I am also a man who is very obsessed with beauty pageants.
What we're seeing is that the people in his circle look like reality TV stars. Maintaining a constant look seems to be an important part of getting into Trump's orbit.
Does this look tell us anything else about Trump or his administration?
What Inae points out is that these looks seem to be policy-related. You combine extreme looks and extreme policies. I think Kristi Noem is doing deportation gram on her DHS video.
These extreme looks are callbacks to different eras of plastic surgery. These extreme policies are callbacks to different times in the US. There is a return of both policy and aesthetics.
So I used the word “extreme.” Are you trying to be extreme in all respects? Is that one way to explain the relationship between Trump's aesthetics and policy?
I think so. What Inae points out is that Trump 2.0 is overloaded in both policy and aesthetics, in a way that Trump 1.0 did not.
At the top, does reality television intentionally strive to provide the greatest entertainment?
Reality TV is a useful way to think about this. This is something like the aesthetics seen around these Trump neighbors, relying on distraction tools. You get caught up in glams and stupid things and don't realize what is actually happening (or sometimes what isn't happening).
Inae points out that seeing the ridiculousness of reality TV's DHS video, a glam of deportation, is so shocking that its performance and aesthetics are so shocking that she almost forgets that there are real people in the video of her being deported and having a family.
As you said, it was as if Trump's policies themselves had plastic surgery – they are given a sparkling, artificial face that you want to stare at, making it difficult to see the reality beneath.
That's a really good way. And that's when talking about aesthetics and policy as a pair. Because just talking about aesthetics makes you feel very anti-feminist. People should do what they want with their own face. But when combined with the cruelty of policy with an almost brutal face augmentation, they feel connected and worth interrogating.
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