Kristi Noem's Drastic Eyeliner Look May Have Been Her Biggest Makeup Misstep Yet

Kristi Noem has done it again. After Noem picked a shoe choice that ruined an entire outfit, the outdated fashion trend she wore a whole year too late, and the hair look she should have thought twice about, she's now delivered another style whiff for the scrapbook. In June 2025, the Secretary of Homeland Security met with Bahrain's Minister of Interior, Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, to discuss the US Coast Guard base abroad. The event was documented in an Instagram post. But if you were distracted from foreign policy by the makeup situation, you weren't alone. A thick, inky, black line overwhelmed her eyes, obscuring any natural crease and closing off the lids entirely. Bringing echoes of heavy-handed makeup from the 2010s, it could definitely be classed alongside the most outdated ways to wear eyeliner in 2025.

Throughout her political career, Noem's public image has often favored the aesthetic of pageantry. Her heavy, full-glam style has always raised eyebrows – and one might wonder if she skipped the tips to make sure your filler stays undetectable, given how over-sculpted the overall effect of her face appears. In the instance of her Bahraini rendez-vous, her foundation stayed conspicuously thick, and her brows were rendered in blunt, unrelenting blocks. For a politician who has championed drag show bans, the resemblance — especially in the eyeliner — to the drag icon Trixie Mattel, surely feels ironic.

Instagram, predictably, didn't hold back. "Honey, I think you got your eyeliner mixed up with your Sharpie again," one commenter wrote. Another asked, "Could you stop with the photo shoots Barbie." Noem's face transformation might be a sight to see, but here, we're not sure we wanted to see it in the first place.

Although Kristi Noem's eyeliner fail is jarring, she's far from the only offender of this makeup faux pas. Scroll through the United States Hub Instagram — a Trump-aligned Instagram account that serves as a digital scrapbook for the MAGA era – and you'll see a cast of familiar faces: Karoline Leavitt, Tulsi Gabbard, Sarah Huckabee Sanders — all devotees of a particular aesthetic now colloquially dubbed "Republican Makeup." This glam is full coverage and unrelentingly matte: dusty-toned eyeshadows, immovable foundation, exaggerated brows. There's little interest in the dewy, minimalist beauty standards that infuse today's mainstream culture (among the drastic ways makeup trends have changed from 2015 to 2025). Lips are often nude and overzealously lined, and a manufactured bronze is expected.

The rest of the look follows suit, almost to the point of parody. Hair falls in standardized and stylized waves — what the internet has christened "Utah curls," as touted on "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives." Clothing clings with evangelical commitment, be it a busty blazer or a brazen bodycon cocktail dress. The aesthetic is as much a political tell as a red baseball cap; before she's even spoken, a woman in this particular look has already delivered a message. And when this curated vision of femininity is paired with an unapologetically hardline agenda — as Kristi Noem has done time and again — the dissonance can seem jarring. The hair may gleam and the lipstick may not budge, but the cultivated exterior only heightens the sharpness beneath.