South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has undergone a remarkable physical transformation as her political goals have shifted — and her recent out-of-state trip to "fix" her smile has completed her "MAGA makeover," according to a New York Times report.
The Republican congresswoman-turned-governor appears to have her eye set on becoming Donald Trump's running mate, and photos of Noem going back to her early days in politics compared to now show she has been trying to catch the former president's eye as he seeks a replacement for the staid Mike Pence, reported the Times Wednesday.
“It’s all about her appeal to an audience of one,” said GOP strategist Ron Bonjean. “The whole teeth thing almost looks like it was done for Trump to see. She is showing him she works well in front of the camera, that she has that star power he wants onstage with him, while fitting into the mode of women in the Trump universe.”
Noem styled her hair in 2010, when she first ran for Congress, in a cross between the layered "Rachel" popularized by Jennifer Aniston on "Friends" and the power bob worn by Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, while she cut it shorter when she won re-election two years in a look an image expert compared to the signature haircut of reality TV star Kate Gosselin, the report stated.
After Trump won the White House, Noem's hair got longer, with tousled waves, and she began to closely resemble Donald Trump Jr.'s fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle and Eric Trump's wife Lara. The cover of her new book shows her with plump, glossy lips and eyelashes thick with makeup.
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“She practically looks like a member of the Trump family,” Bonjean said. “Maybe a cousin.”
The governor posted a five-minute infomercial promoting Smile Texas, the cosmetic dental practice she said repaired her teeth damaged years ago in a bicycle crash, and while the ad raised eyebrows and prompted a lawsuit from the consumer advocacy group Travelers United, the entire stunt appears aimed at the image-conscious presumptive GOP nominee.
"Mr. Trump was, after all, the president who often identified his staff members, especially members of the military, as coming from 'central casting,'" reported Vanessa Friedman, the Times' chief fashion critic.
"He now dresses almost entirely in the colors of the American flag. He once announced that women should 'dress like women' — and, as Richard Thompson Ford, a law professor at Stanford University and the author of 'Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History,' said, 'We know what that means to him.' It is reflected in the profile of almost every woman in the Trump orbit, including his family members and his former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany."
Noem's makeover has turned her into what Samantha Sheppard, a professor of cinema and media studies at Cornell University, called “the perfect ornament for Trump," with a style that evokes the “Miss America-like white femininity" favored by Fox News anchors.
“It’s absolutely strategic,” Ford said. "[She's] signaling that she’s going to be Trump’s kind of woman. And, at the same time, that she isn’t going to challenge him.”
It seems to have worked, based on an exchange over the weekend in Ohio, where Noem joined Trump to rally for Senate candidate Bernie Moreno in matching MAGA hats.
“You’re not allowed to say it, so I will not," Trump said. "You’re not allowed to say she’s beautiful, so I’m not going to say it.”
