On March 11, 2024, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem posted a video of her getting her teeth fixed at SmileTexas. She explained to her followers that she had gotten into a bicycling accident years prior while out with her children and, ever since, had been insecure about her smile. She expressed her gratitude to the team that gave her a new smile and showed off her smile in several close-up shots. The video was bizarre and quickly resulted in a lawsuit due to failure to properly disclose that it was an advertisement. However, Gov. Noem altering her appearance was not shocking. Noem first emerged on the national stage in 2010, while running for Congress. Her hair was cut in a style reminiscent of “the Rachel” of “Friends” fame, her lips were small, and her face moved and creased whenever she smiled or laughed. However, her hair soon appeared longer; she had ditched the tousled look for a middle part, balayage, and barrel curls; her lips were plumper; and her face was creaseless and motionless whenever she spoke. Noem’s new look left everyone with one question: Why?
The answer came one week after Noem debuted her new teeth when she was called on stage by President Donald Trump during his rally in Vandalia, Ohio. Sporting a red “Make America Great Again” hat, she gave a few remarks during which she disparaged President Joe Biden’s administration for what she saw as failures and praised President Trump. Once she had left the stage, President Trump took a moment to address her new appearance, saying, “You’re not allowed to say it, so I will not. You know you’re not allowed to say she’s beautiful, so I’m not going to say that. I will not say it, because that’s the end of your political career, if you make — if you make that statement, that’s the end of your political — so I will not say that.” Trump thought Noem looked beautiful, so beautiful that in his eyes he was risking his entire political career just to say so. Norm’s new look fit Trump’s idea of what a woman should look like.
Months after that remark, following his win in the 2024 presidential election, Trump announced Noem as his nominee for Homeland Security Secretary.
The look of overdrawn lips, balayage, barrel-curled hair, heavily contoured cheeks, and block eyebrows is a far cry from what the archetype of a Republican woman used to be. Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly perfectly encapsulated what the stereotypical Republican woman looked like. Her hair was always neatly brushed back and out of her face into a bun, her makeup was minimal and undetectable, and her clothing did not hug her curves, but it also was not loose. It fit perfectly. Yet, if one were to watch the 2024 Republican National Convention, you would not see any women who looked like that on stage. Kristi Noem, Lara Trump, and Kimberly Guilfoyle all wore bodycon dresses, had plump lips, long hair that flowed down their backs, and tight faces with plenty of makeup caked on. The shift from an understated appearance to the plastic Barbie doll-esque look that is prominent amongst high-ranking women in the Republican Party is a direct result of Donald Trump’s rise to power.
Trump’s focus on a woman’s looks is no secret. Decades before he became the Republican nominee, he was a real estate mogul and a frequent feature on Page Six. The tabloid always featured Trump with a beautiful model on his arm. During those times when he was not single, he was dating a model. In fact his three wives, Ivana Trump, Marla Maples, and Melania Trump, were all models before they wed Trump.
Most notably, he purchased the Miss Universe Corporation in 1996; and with that purchase, he acquired the Miss Teen USA, Miss USA, and Miss Universe pageants. In a 2005 interview with radio jock Howard Stern, Trump spoke about acquiring the pageants and what he believed was wrong with them. He told Stern that the judges had been too focused on the intelligence of the models, saying, “they had a person that was extremely proud that a number of the women become doctors and I wasn’t interested.” Women in the Republican Party shifting from the understated conservative look that had reigned supreme in the party once a former pageant owner became leader is on coincidence. Their hair, their lips, their clothes, and their faces were all done in a way to make them look like an exaggerated version of Miss USA.
Throughout his political journey, Trump has continued to be disinterested in the intelligence of women, opting only to care about their appearance. His daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, was named co-chair of the Republican National Committee in 2024, despite her having no leadership experience in the Republican Party. Kimberly Guilfoyle, who was formally engaged to Donald Trump Jr., was nominated to be the United States Ambassador to Greece, despite her lack of experience in foreign relations. Both women, like Noem, had adopted new looks in recent years.
The procedures these women are alleged to have had — lip fillers, facial fillers, botox, veneers — are all to mimic the pageant girl look. These women understand that all the experience, intelligence, and diligence in the world means nothing if Donald Trump believes you are ugly.
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