In the midst of the chaos of the first 100 days of President Trump – standards informed, rates delivered and paused rates, confrontations in the courts – one thing has remained consistent. Even reliable.
The administration looks, and how much it matters.
Mr Trump’s cultivation of his own image (Pak and tie and her and brown) has been so ruthless that it has become Steno for everything he represents. So also, when it comes to the people around him: his cabinet secretaries, nearest assistants and family members. Together they bring, just as powerful as every executive order, the value system that the president claims to represent and the promises on which he built his second term.
In the world of endless and more and more undedicated scroll, where photos are the first communication line and the president is the executive producer of everyone’s reality show, the costumes have become central to the messages. They act as accessories for the executive orders that challenge the status quo, the separation of powers and the limits of legality. They are – of course – less important than such orders, but they are part of the field.
The first 100 days of Mr Trump are partly a story about an administration in which looking at the role is crucial to play the role. Where the meaning of gender is codified in clothing and hair – face or running – as well as by Fiat. Where the Minister of Defense a Glam room In the Pentagon for promotional performances. Where the refusal of the Ukrainian president to attract a lawsuit for the Oval Office becomes a public symbol of his refusal to KowTow. Clothing is a coded sign of Trouw and FeaLty is a non -consumable quality, best worn on the sleeve.
What does this administration stand for? His actions can be messy, but the style is strategic. The fact that the dress sometimes seems strange in the neighborhood does not mean that it is not effective either. The insinuation: don’t believe what you hear or what you read. Believe your eyes!
For example, believe Mr Trump when he says he stands for America himself. After all, he has dressed himself, if not in the actual flag, then in the colors of the flag.
His blue suit, white shirt and red tie have just as well become a uniform as every actually uniform, taken wholesaler by many of the male members of his administration, especially at times of large public attitude. JD Vance wore it for the Zensky meeting in the Oval Office; Mr. Vance and House speaker Mike Johnson bore it for the presidential speech to congress; And Kash Patel, the FBI director, wore it for his confirmation hearing.
That implicit patriotism is only covered by the explicit patriotism of Pete Hegseeth, the Minister of Defense, who has taken the Washington practice to wear a flag spider to new heights by regularly wearing an old glory handkerchief with its bright blue suits, such as a promise of fashion.
Such a staring with stars, however, turned out to be, but the precursor of the oval office visit of Kid Rock in a jumpsuit so horribly that it seemed more suitable for an uncle Sam Look-Alike competition than for a presidential meet-and-greet.
And that is just the beginning. Mr. Trump also makes America rich again. How do we know? He not only announced a new Golden Age, he models it. As he posted About the Truth Social, “He who has the gold makes the rules.”
It started with the inaugural balls, dressed with his family in the kind of broken and chopped dresses that seemed to have been selected to remember the original gilt age. It continued with the re -decorated Oval Office, with its golden Damas chairs and curtains, his cloak covered with golden urns and walls decorated with oils in extensive gold frames.
The perspective was formalized in the official portrait of Melania Trump, in which she looked nothing so much as the Smokedo-spawned executive chairman of the board. And it was reflected by Kristi Noom, the Minister of Interior Security, who wore a Golden Rolex of $ 50,000 when she posed outside a prison in El Salvador. That watch shines even brighter than the new Golden Visa for millionaires that Mr Trump showed at the beginning of April and the gilded lapels in the form of the president’s profile.
Whether the gold cruises supported by many of the women in the executive branch, a memory that the government indeed makes America again divine again. The crosses sparkle at the neck of Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Minister of Witte Huis Pers Secretary, Karoline Leavitt; They sparkle subtly against the throat of agricultural secretary Brooke Rollins and labor secretary Lori Chavez Dederemer. As with the curved heads and hands at the start of the meetings, they paint a picture of the belief in broad strokes.
The effect is impossible to miss, such as the Pantomime of making America safe again in the equipment of various cabinet secretaries while they join their subordinates to pose for promotional photos in the field.
For example, see, Madam calls himself as an ice agent, complete with bulletproof vest and baseball cap, or Mr. Patel who holds a press conference in his FBI Windjack or Mr. Vance in his army tired – camouflage literally and metaphorical. See Mr. Vance and his wife, Usha, in a matching army Green Parkas who visit an American military base in Greenland, and Mrs. Trump also opts for Army Green for a visit to disaster zones in North Carolina and California.
They all followed Mr. Trump, whose combative Mokschot – chin down, jaw set, eyes bright; The image of UFC AGGRO Spirit in a suit – has become his favorite pose. It was replicated for his official inaugural portrait and for his social social profile (where his face was painted with the American flag, in case someone missed the message that he is fighting for his country). Just like his challenging fist-enhanced pose after attempted murder in Butler, Pa., Has been immortalized in an oil painting that hangs in the big foyer of the White House.
And just like his promise to disrupt the establishment, the embodiment found in the person of Elon Musk, who literally disrupted the uniform of the Washington-etblissement with his dark mirror reflection of the Trump ethos in his black Maga Hoed, Jeans, Blazerentese are the blazerente-to-eenstenschaentens-ene-entens-ene-entens-ene-tens-entenschagtens-ene-tens-engen-een-ene-een-ene-tens-entenstesten Trump’s Red-White-and-Blue’s Red-White-and-Blue’s Red-White-and-Blue’s Red-White-and-Blue’s Red-White-and-Blue’s Red-White-and-Blue’s Red-White-and-Blue Mini-Mees.
Mr Zelensky may have been excited because he had not worn a suit in the Oval Office, but Mr. Musk was announced for it. The fastest way to convince the viewing world that you move quickly and break things is by dressing in the mode of those who invented the myth of quickly moving and breaking things. When President Javier Milei of Argentina saw Mr. Musk a chain at the conservative political action conference in February, it was less a joke than a revelation: 100 days later the props received just as much attention as coherent progress.
Slide show: Doug Mills/The New York Times; Kevin Dietsch/Getty images; Eric Lee/The New York Times; Haiyun Jiang for the New York Times; Brian Snyder/Reuters; Régine Mahaux/The White House; Kenny Holston/The New York Times; Alex Brandon/Associated Press; Win McNamee/Getty images
First collage: Eric Lee/The New York Times; Pool Photo by Ron Sachs; Kenny Holston/The New York Times; Andrew Harnik/Getty images; Haiyun Jiang for the New York Times; Alex Brandon/Associated Press; Jim Watson/AFP – Getty Images; Pool Photo by Shawn Thew; Pool Photo by Julien de Rosa
Second collage: Kenny Holston/The New York Times; Wojtek Radwanski/AFP – Getty images; Doug Mills/The New York Times; Andrew Harnik/Getty images; Samuel Corum/Getty images; Eric Lee/The New York Times;
Third collage: Doug Mills/The New York Times; Pool Photo by Alex Brandon-Pool; Eric Lee/The New York Times; Pool Photo by Mandel Ngan; Régine Mahaux/The White House
Forth Collage: Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press; Kent Nishimura/Reuters; Eric Lee/The New York Times; Leah Millis/Reuters; Kenny Holston/The New York Times; Marta Lavandier/Associated Press; Craig Hudson/Reuters; Saul Loeb/AFP – Getty images; Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP-Getty Images Images; Jim Watson/AFP – Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty images; Doug Mills/The New York Times
Fifth collage: American immigration and customs enforcement, via Getty images; Jr. Rod Lambey/Associated Press; Polar photo by Jim Watson; Kevin Dietsch/Getty images; Win McNamee/Getty images; Kenny Holston/The New York Times; The White House; Pool Photo by Alex Brandon;
Sixth Collage: Eric Lee/The New York Times; Oliver Contreras/AFP – Getty images; Eric Lee/The New York Times; FOX; Kevin Lamarque/Reuters; Doug Mills/The New York Times; Al Drago for the New York Times
