In President Donald Trump’s world, looks aren’t just for women to worry about—they’re something men are quietly stressing over, too.
The president has long treated appearance like a political asset, sizing people up like a casting director. The scrutiny has been most evident in the way he talks about women.
But lately, the obsession seems to be bleeding into the men around him, who now seem locked in a race to project a hyper-curated masculinity.
It’s a dynamic playing out in both subtle and absurd ways, according to The New York Times.
In January, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was filmed working out with UCLA ROTC cadets. A month later, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared wearing jeans in a workout video alongside Kid Rock.
But projecting strength also brings a growing sensitivity to how it’s perceived.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio blasted a set of portraits published by Vanity Fair in December as “deliberately manipulated,” a claim the magazine denied.
Hegseth was also caught berating his 15-year-old son for nearly ruining a social media stunt while he was attempting to bench press with the Navy.
More recently, he was reported to have restricted photographers at briefings over concerns about unflattering images, an allegation the Pentagon rejected, according to The Washington Post.
Trump has always seen politics as a visual medium, where TV hits and social media clips are the real currency.
He has leaned heavily into UFC-style spectacle, surrounding himself with fighters and promoters at events, reinforcing a preference for a certain kind of performative toughness.
As Iran negotiations faltered over the Strait of Hormuz recently, Trump made sure he was seen ringside at a UFC fight in Miami, flanked by allies. He has also made a habit of openly appraising the men around him.
At the February launch of his Board of Peace, Trump singled out Paraguay’s president, Santiago Peña, as a “young, handsome guy,” and he once famously brushed dandruff off French President Emmanuel Macron’s shoulder, declaring, “We have to make him perfect. He is perfect.”
Trump has also shown a fixation with how his team dresses, recently gifting pairs of $145 dress shoes to some of his top officials.
Even Trump himself has shown flashes of sensitivity when it comes to his own image, complaining that a Time magazine cover last year had made him look bald.
“They ‘disappeared’ my hair, and then had something floating on top of my head that looked like a floating crown, but an extremely small one. Really weird! I never liked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is a super bad picture, and deserves to be called out. What are they doing, and why?” he wrote on Truth Social.
His fixation cuts both ways, with appearance not just something to defend against, but also a way to signal approval.
On Thursday, Trump singled out a male reporter and praised his looks after fielding a question he liked.
“I love this question… look how handsome he is,” Trump said in front of a gaggle of other reporters.
In Trump’s world, masculinity isn’t just something to project, it’s something to prove, constantly. But the more it’s performed, the more fragile it can start to appear.
