As jokes about the Donald Trump administration’s aesthetic rage on, one Botched plastic surgeon says the latest viral memes are actually a bit far-fetched. The latest evidence of “Mar-a-Lago face” came after Barbera Thornhill was appointed as the newest member of the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. A photo of Thornhill was shared on X and received more than 20 million views.
More pictures followed on Instagram after Callista Gingrich, Newt Gingrich’s wife and Donald Trump’s ambassador to Switzerland, posted a photo of her with Thornhill that went viral, and Thornhill’s face generated comments, with social media users commenting on her “botched” appearance. Comments about her looking alien-like and comparing her face to a Halloween costume ran rampant, and comments about Trump appointees, specifically women, began receiving backlash against an aesthetic that has become known widely online as having a “Mar-a-Lago face.”
As for what constitutes a Mar-a-Lago face, the recipe involves high, dark, arched brows, injected lips, facial skin pulled tight, and barely open eyes that appear to have been pulled sideways and up. Even Meghan McCain shared criticism of the aesthetic, writing on X: “Republicans really need to elevate and highlight more women in our party who have NOT had bizarre or botched plastic surgery that is both distracting and made a mockery all over the internet.”
But Terry Dubrow, who worked on the reality series where he corrected plastic surgery nightmares, says photos circulating of the mocked Mar-a-Lago face of some of Trump’s appointees are not the worst. “It’s very fun, particularly when you’re on one political side or another, to aim your criticism weapon at them and say, ‘Oh, look how bad their plastic surgery is,’” he said in an interview with Vanity Fair. “But it isn’t bad. From a technical point of view, it’s extraordinarily successful[.] The plastic surgery is super well executed.”
In fact, Dubrow says the aesthetic is a symbol of status in certain social circles on the East Coast. “I’m so successful. Everyone around me is successful. We do things to the extreme. We’re excessively rich. We’re excessively powerful,” he said. “If I’m going to have a facelift, I don’t want any laxity. If I’m going to have a brow lift, I want to have a brow lift; I want it up. [If] I’m going to have [an] upper-eye lift, take all the skin.”
But Dubrow does have some objections to the look, specifically for those who want to be pulled too tight, which he declines. He says those procedures, which are typically face lifts, can create severe complications. “I don’t like that aesthetic,” he noted.