By all accounts, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi really cares about how she looks when the cameras are on her. Plastic surgeons have debated which aesthetic enhancements Bondi had done to her face, while the internet is littered with jarring photos of Bondi that prove her heavy makeup shouldn’t be captured up close.
The attorney general the public knows arrives to press conferences and Cabinet meetings with the full complement of product and glam routine that has become something of a face uniform in Trump’s orbit. Yet despite her best efforts, there exists another version that Washington, D.C. hardly ever gets to see. And while she still has a ways to go to find herself on the list of the worst makeup mistakes in the MAGAverse, the strangest part is that this other Pam Bondi looks … just fine.
It’s difficult to find instances of Bondi’s makeup-free face without really rummaging through old photos, some even dated to the late 1990s. On August 9, 2017, Bondi posted a throwback photo to celebrate her nephew Jake’s 19th birthday, and it confirms our suspicions that Bondi has always had the kind of face that doesn’t need much help. There’s no heavy base sitting like a mask on her face, and her lips are carrying little more than a trace of a sheen — elegant, subtle, and approachable, and just right for the persona she’d adopt in the courtroom. That version of Bondi didn’t need a layer of cosmetic armor to protect her from scrutiny. The current one apparently does.
The Florida girl was always the better version of Bondi
Pam Bondi looks remarkable for her age. Comparing some of the older photos, like the one from the late 1990s, to more recent appearances, one can’t help but notice that the 60-year-old attorney general looks unchanged from the 30-year-old prosecutor. That fact alone has sent social media into a frenzy about possible plastic surgery she may have quietly had done over the years. But perhaps the more conspicuous change is her makeup routine. The lighter touch of earlier years is nowhere to be found, swapped out for the heavier hand that’s all but a condition of employment in Trump’s inner circle.
Bondi became Florida’s first female attorney general on her own terms, with more than two decades spent working her way through the unforgiving world of state law enforcement. Now she’s tragically turning into yet another blonde in the West Wing beauty lineup, if you’ll pardon the expression. Whatever you may think of her political affiliations, what Bondi lost by blending into the MAGA beauty movement is all the more noticeable for how often we see her face on television.
As Bondi’s political profile grew, so did her reliance on cosmetic products. Her minimal eye makeup gave way to the frosted look she sports now, and the heavy foundation is its own recurring issue. The instinct is perhaps to look more polished under the national spotlight, but the result can often be the opposite — as proven by the increasing number of MAGA women who are giving up on “Mar-a-Lago” face. Oh, Bondi is escaping “Mar-a-Lago Face” allegations for one interesting reason, but that doesn’t mean she’s gotten away entirely unscathed.
