The debut of Donald Trump’s new White House press secretary was met with howls of derision this week, and yet Katie Zacharia’s fumbling performance in her first briefing did serve one purpose: reaffirming the type of woman the President will give power in his administration and – by extension – his message about a woman’s role in his hyper-masculine vision of America.
That is: women should be groomed, glamorous, unthreatening and unflinchingly loyal. “She has an unblemished record of support, and has been a loyal and brilliant supporter, right from the beginning,” Trump wrote about Zacharia on Truth Social when he announced her appointment. “She is, likewise, a devoted fan and member of Maga!”
The women who have made it into Trump’s political spheres are unquestionably ambitious. Sarah Huckabee, Trump’s longest-standing press secretary from his first term, went on to be the Governor of Arkansas. Karoline Leavitt, Zacharia’s predecessor and the youngest woman ever to hold the role, started interning at the White House and Fox News while still in college – she is now serving as an outside adviser and is writing a book.
Many of these women are highly educated, qualified and shrewd political operators, committed to the Republican Party. Some are savvy media commentators who caught Trump’s eye. Politico’s Playbook has reported that Zacharia figured out Trump’s TV-watching schedule by monitoring his Truth Social account and made sure she was on the shows he saw. Anna Kelly, the 29-year-old White House deputy press secretary, started working as a campaign intern for a local Virginia Republican Committee in her mid-teens.
And yet, the extent of their ambition is perhaps most clearly demonstrated in terms of their levels of devotion. Kayleigh McEnany was a Harvard graduate who reportedly heeded advice from a senior Republican that if she wanted to go far, she needed to stop criticising Trump. She quit her commentary job at CNN and went all in during his first presidential run. When she eventually became Trump’s press secretary in 2020, the Associated Press wrote that McEnany “has made clear from her first briefing that she’s willing to defend her boss’s view of himself as well as his most flagrant misstatements”.
Similarly, Leavitt, who followed McEnany, proved she would also defend Trump unreservedly. When Trump recently threatened that a “whole civilisation will die” during America’s war with Iran, she described Trump as retaining “the moral high ground”. Natalie Harp – his executive assistant who travels with him and types out his social media posts – credits the President with securing her experimental cancer treatment and reportedly told him: “You are all that matters to me.” Meanwhile, Margo Martin, the communications adviser whom Trump described as “the most beautiful photographer in the world”, is his leading content creator. Beni Rae Harmony, Trump’s 24-year-old assistant press secretary, has been photographed in a “f**k Biden” T-shirt.
Many of these Maga women have made their way into the most elite Washington circles and will now do whatever it takes to stay there.
Arguably, one of those things is to look a certain way. Alongside the internet’s widespread agreement that Zacharia bore an uncanny resemblance to Trump’s favourite daughter, she also embodies a “look” associated with the Maga’s most prominent female figureheads. Like the far-right activist Laura Loomer and the recently resigned Greek ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle, they place a heavy emphasis on glamour and grooming, with long, tousled hair, freshly applied make-up and fitted trouser suits. “Mar-a-Lago face” is a term coined to suggest the type of cosmetic surgery some of these women (and a few Maga men) appear to have had: smooth, large cheeks, bee-sting lips and wrinkle-free foreheads and necks. (This focus on appearance isn’t only for women. The Vice President, JD Vance, confessed that Trump gave him and Marco Rubio expensive new shoes that they were pictured wearing – despite them being far too big.)
Yet, Maga women do not only uphold more traditional expressions of femininity in how they present themselves, but in how they live. When asked how she would balance the job with family life, 41-year-old Zacharia, a mother of four children aged six to 12, said: “They are my priority. I love being with my kids… The idea of not spending evenings with my kids is completely unacceptable.” She went on to suggest that this would be no problem because Trump was “the most family-friendly President ever”.
The fact that Zacharia is even standing at the podium might contradict that. Leavitt stepped down from the role very shortly after having her second child. “Being a working mother is the hardest thing in the world,” she said at the time. Leavitt reportedly went back to work three days after giving birth to her first child in 2024. The women in Trump’s administration face the double bind of being expected to place Trump above all else, while simultaneously displaying a “correct” version of femininity where women are wives and mothers first. In Trump’s world, women can’t win.
Yet, he appears to believe their presence will play to his advantage. The seemingly softer, feminine face of the administration – peach lipstick, glossy hair, talk of children – helps to mask the extremity of his policies, including the crackdown on immigration, a war he promised his base he’d never have, deals with the Russians, countless allegations of corruption and the worsening affordability crisis.
As has long been a problem for the right, Trump’s promotion of traditional gender roles is inherently threatened by placing women in power. Yet, by hiring women who deliberately emphasise their femininity, he not only signposts the types of women he approves of but also uses it to deflect and de-escalate.
When Trump called a reporter “piggy”, Leavitt said he was merely “frustrated” at “fake news”. In that moment, the press, and therefore the public, saw a young woman attempting to reframe it as reasonable and understandable (a woman managing the outbursts of an angry man will be familiar to many, no doubt). She did this not just by claiming that to be the case, but by the fact that the message was coming from her – a young, blonde American mother who was endlessly, sometimes aggressively loyal, often nicknamed “Trump’s attack dog”. The crucifix necklace she unfailingly wore underlined her position as a good, and crucially trustworthy, Christian woman.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that the loyalty of Maga women will be rewarded. According to The New York Times, this spring “four of Mr Trump’s eight female cabinet-level officials resigned or were fired in just three months…all replaced by men”. There is now talk of Zacharia’s exit after her tricky first briefing and allegations that she lied about her credentials as a lawyer.
Perhaps Trump thinks the world will be distracted by a pretty face. Perhaps he thinks the femininity he promotes – being in the service of men, maternal and groomed for the male gaze – will help mask the extremity of his politics, the harm caused to communities or the failures of his office. Realistically, it may have limited impact. After all, for voters, the price of gas at the pump is the same regardless of who is telling them why it’s not coming down.
Yet, whether Trump’s women do help dull the blow of his leadership or not, under his administration, they remain merely pawns – or objects – to be used, one way or another, to his advantage and to cement his power. Any power they may have is limited, temporary and comes at a high price. Donald Trump has long made his views on women clear to the American people. Those closest to him are no exception.