Long, blond, wavy hair, heavy makeup and cosmetic injections: like many women in Donald Trump’s orbit, political consultant Melissa Rein Lively wears her support for the US president on her face.With the rise of Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, a group of well-connected and well-off Republican women have come into the spotlight sporting what the US media have dubbed the “MAGA look.””This has always been my look. I just found my tribe,” said Rein Lively, 40, founder of “America First,” a public relations agency that provides “anti-woke” services.”It’s so much bigger than politics. It’s friendships. It’s relationships,” she told AFP in a recent interview. “That MAGA look really signals to other people that you’re on the same team.”These new-style conservatives, almost always devout Christians, espouse traditional values while pursuing personal ambition.Since the September assassination of top MAGA influencer and Trump ally Charlie Kirk, his widow Erika has taken the reins of his youth mobilization group.During a memorial service for her husband, the 36-year-old former Miss Arizona dabbed her impeccably made-up eyes with a handkerchief and praised a Christian marriage. She cited a New Testament passage that instructs wives to submit to their husbands for protection.”It’s so hard to articulate the beauty of an Ephesians 5 marriage when you actually have a man that’s worth following,” she said.- Not just fashion -While professing family values and religious beliefs, these MAGA women are anything but shy in their appearance.Clad in skirts and dresses, almost always wearing their hair long, they can be recognized by heavy makeup, which includes well-defined eyebrows and “contouring,” a technique that uses dark and light shades to sculpt the face. Many opt for cosmetic interventions, including fillers and surgery to achieve fuller cheeks, plumper lips and a refined nose.Rein Lively points to Trump’s daughter Ivanka and his daughter-in-law Lara as her role models.”It’s a mistake to dismiss this as just about fashion, just about makeup,” said Juliet Williams, a professor of gender studies at UCLA. “It’s actually absolutely central because this Trump MAGA movement was able to return to the White House in 2024, I believe, essentially because of leveraging the gender war.”- ‘Two hours in the gym every day’ -The 79-year-old Trump has mobilized many young voters with his nationalist, pro-business and macho appeal.The MAGA face is political because it is “a way of signaling to all women that your value depends on your attractiveness to men,” said Williams, adding that Trump used to run a beauty pageant.Rein Lively, however, rejects any idea of submission or coercion.”By absolutely nobody’s volition other than my own do I spend two hours in the gym every day, get my hair done every three and a half weeks on the button, get my nails done, get my eyebrows done, get my skincare done, get Botox,” she said.The PR consultant vied for the job of White House spokesperson for Trump’s second term, but the president ultimately picked long-time loyalist Karoline Leavitt.Leavitt, 28, has surrounded herself with young assistants who emulate her impeccably groomed look, which includes high heels, even on trips that involve a lot of running around.”I look at these MAGA women and I don’t see them as fashion victims… but I see it as war paint,” Williams said. “And, you know, embracing a system that is ultimately designed to work against them.”- ‘It is ironic’ -One of the women most frequently cited as embodying the so-called “MAGA face” is Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who has led Trump’s hardline immigration policy.”The long-hair extensions, the big lips, the big cheeks, the makeup, the lash extensions, it’s like she’s doing drag,” said Daniel Belkin, a dermatologist in New York.Belkin finds it paradoxical that MAGA supporters are hostile to drag queen shows and condemn breast augmentation and facial reconstruction surgery for transgender people. They often resort to similar procedures to accentuate their femininity and masculinity.”It is ironic, because they’re so against gender-affirming care for trans people, but they’re doing gender affirming care for themselves,” Belkin said.In a recent episode, the popular animated series “South Park” ridiculed Noem as a shrew with a face butchered by cosmetic procedures, which her assistants must constantly patch up for the cameras.”It’s so lazy to just constantly make fun of women for how they look,” Noem protested during a recent interview.

Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa is to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday for unprecedented talks just days after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist.Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, will be the first Syrian leader to visit the White House since the country’s independence in 1946.Formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda, Sharaa’s group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was itself only delisted as a terrorist group by Washington in July.Since taking power, Syria’s new leaders have sought to break from their violent past and present a more moderate image to ordinary Syrians and foreign powers.Sharaa’s White House visit is “a hugely symbolic moment for the country’s new leader, who thus marks another step in his astonishing transformation from militant leader to global statesman,” said Michael Hanna, US program director at the International Crisis Group.The interim president met Trump for the first time in Saudi Arabia during the US leader’s regional tour in May.After his arrival in Washington, Sharaa over the weekend met with IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva over possible aid for the war-wrecked country, and with representatives from Syrian organizations.Washington’s envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said earlier this month that Sharaa may on Monday sign an agreement to join the international US-led alliance against the Islamic State (IS) group.The United States plans to establish a military base near Damascus “to coordinate humanitarian aid and observe developments between Syria and Israel,” a diplomatic source in Syria told AFP.The State Department’s decision Friday to remove Sharaa from the blacklist was widely expected.State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said Sharaa’s government had been meeting US demands on working to find missing Americans and on eliminating any remaining chemical weapons.”These actions are being taken in recognition of the progress demonstrated by the Syrian leadership after the departure of Bashar al-Assad and more than 50 years of repression under the Assad regime,” Pigott said.On Saturday, the Syrian interior ministry announced that it had carried out 61 raids and made 71 arrests in a “proactive campaign to neutralize the threat” of IS, according to the official SANA news agency.It said the raids targeted locations where IS sleeper cells remain, including Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, Homs, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa and Damascus.Sharaa’s Washington trip comes after he visited the United Nations in September — his first time on US soil — where the ex-jihadist became the first Syrian president in decades to address the UN General Assembly in New York.Last week Washington led a vote by the Security Council to remove UN sanctions against him.Sharaa is expected to seek US funds for Syria, which faces significant challenges in rebuilding after 13 years of civil war.In October, the World Bank put a “conservative best estimate” of the cost of rebuilding Syria at $216 billion. mam-at-burs/bgs/iv