The Trumpification of Kristi Noem
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is preparing for her national close-up. How else can she interpret her recent controversial trip to Texas to “fix” her smile, documented in a long video?
You know, the one she posted on The one who captured her journey, she said, “a smile I can be proud of and have confidence in.”
The result looked so much like a promotional infomercial that Travelers United, a consumer advocacy group, is suing Ms. Noem for false advertising, claiming she was actually acting as a travel influencer. Vanity fair wrote that the whole exercise “blew up in her face.”
Except for one thing. The teeth story is about much more than teeth.
As the race to become Donald J. Trump’s running mate heats up, Ms. Noem’s new smile reflects a tactical move that has as much to do with politics and psychology as it does with appearance.
“It’s all about her appeal to an audience of one,” said Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist. “The whole teeth thing almost seems like it was done for Trump. She shows him that she can work well in front of the camera, that she has the star power he wants on stage with him, while fitting into the fashion of women in the Trump universe.
After all, Mr. Trump was the president who often identified his staffers, especially military personnel, as coming of “central casting.” 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 author of “Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History,” said: “We know what that means . at him.” It is reflected in the profile of almost every woman in the Trump circle, including his family members and his former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
In this regard, Ms. Noem’s dental upgrade is simply the latest step in what appears to be a years-long makeover that has transformed her, more than any other woman on Trump’s shortlist, into what Samantha N. Sheppard, a professor in film and film, has become. media studies at Cornell University, called “the perfect ornament for Trump.” Even beyond her popularity and credentials as governor and her MAGA platform, she offers an example of a certain kind of “Miss America-style white femininity,” Ms. Sheppard said, also reflected in Fox News hosts and that has to do with falling hair, extensive eyelashes and a dazzling smile.
How does Mr. Trump know she is part of his team? All he has to do is watch.
The images tell the story. In 2010, when she first ran for Congress, Ms. Noem had a hairstyle that looked like a cross between “the Rachel,” the layered, straightened hairstyle that Jennifer Aniston made famous in “Friends” and the power bob which Hillary preferred. Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. When she won re-election in 2012, she cut it to a cropped look that Ms. Sheppard likened to Kate Gosselin’s signature haircut from “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” albeit a bit more businesslike.
After Mr. Trump won the presidency and the MAGA movement took off, Ms. Noem adopted a new look. Her hair grew longer and longer, with messy waves kissed by the curling iron, her parting moving towards the middle. She started to look like a doppelgänger for Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle. Or a dark-haired version of Lara Trump, Eric Trump’s wife and the new co-chair of the Republican National Committee. Even Ms. Noem’s attire changed, from the khaki shirt dress she wore to CPAC in 2011 to the bright blue sheath she chose for her State of the State address this year.
There is no better example of her transformation than the cover photo of her new book“No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward,” featuring a portrait of Ms. Noem with glossy lips, thick eyelashes and a hand seemingly playing with her wavy locks as she sits in her desk chair. a blazer and dress in front of the American flag.
“She practically looks like a member of the Trump family,” Mr. Bonjean said. “Maybe a cousin.”
And while her Trumpification could be a coincidence, Ms. Noem has shown herself to be sensitive to the effects and use of costumes, as seen in recent advertisements in which she dressed up as a dental hygienist, electrician, and highway patrolman, to better convey the idea that “South Dakota is hiring.” (“We have over 20,000 open positions,” she says in one ad. Plus no individual income tax!)
“It’s absolutely strategic,” Mr. Ford said. Ms. Noem “indicates that she will become Trump’s kind of woman. And at the same time that she is not going to challenge him.’
This approach to political imagery has its roots in the pantomimed femininity of Phyllis Schlafly and Sarah Palin, where the promise of a powerful woman was undermined by her participation in the pageantry of traditional gender cosplay.
The teeth just complete the picture, as does the fact that Ms. Noem took the opportunity to talk to the dentist who performed the procedure. If anyone would recognize the value of using power to promote products, it would be Mr. Trump himself. And maybe you recognize a kindred spirit.
The governor may be partially selling herself as a common cowgirl, but Ms. Noem speaks Mr. Trump’s language, proving that she belongs and that she is fully behind his vision. That she will “get in line and stay in line,” Ms. Sheppard said. “That she knows how to behave and can be who he wants her to be.”
In any case, he clearly noticed. A few days after the dental news broke, Ms. Noem accompanied Mr. Trump at a rally for Senate candidate Bernie Moreno in Vandalia, Ohio. After she spoke – they wore matching MAGA hats – Mr. Trump announced: “You’re not allowed to say it, so I won’t either. You can’t say she’s beautiful, so I’m not going to say that either.”
What else could she do but smile?