As is well known, Donald Trump doesn't sleep much. And when he sees something he doesn't like, he picks up the phone. Blanche Sprague knows this from the time when Trump was still a real estate entrepreneur in New York. Sometimes, his former manager told the Daily Mail, Trump would call her in the evening and ask something like: “Did you know there is a soda bottle in front of Trump Plaza?” Then Sprague had to make sure the bottle disappeared. Trump checked that later. It was like working as a nanny.
Little seems to have changed in the White House. Other women close to Trump also told the tabloid about a working world that operates according to strict rules and his whims. Not only do you have to be exceptionally good at your job, one of them told the Daily Mail: "If you're a woman, you also have to look a certain way, dress a certain way and be available 24 hours a day because this president hardly sleeps." The job with Trump quickly becomes “completely grueling.”
The reason for the complaints is the departure of Karoline Leavitt. The 28-year-old press spokeswoman and mother of two said she wanted to spend more time with her children. It was said that she would advise Trump externally in the future. Still, sources say Leavitt was also tired of her boss's demands.
The speaker embodied the female ideal of Trumpism: young, married, mother, feminine and aggressive at the same time - and above all, loyal. After the birth of her second child, she quickly returned to work and stood immaculately groomed behind the podium again. Leavitt was the ideal representative of a political movement that encouraged women not to put off having children in favor of their careers.
Other women are now describing what this dual role costs. In addition to the actual work, there is a second job description: hair, skin, figure and clothing must be perfect. According to the Daily Mail, women in the White House have their hair professionally blow-dried before starting work, so they sit down for a so-called “blowout” while others are still sleeping. Botox, fillers and the gym are as commonplace as aggressive weight management.
The “MAGA chic” with lots of makeup, evenly styled hot waves, adhesive eyelashes and acrylic nails, known long before Trump as the “Texan look,” seems practically mandatory. This is particularly expensive for young female employees, the Daily Mail describes: Some earn $50,000 to $70,000 a year and are also expected to invest thousands of dollars in clothing, fitness and hair styling. Sociology calls this the “aesthetic laboratory”: working on your own body because your appearance becomes part of your professional performance.
Women are bearers of power. The examples of Hope Hicks, who was communications chief in the White House until spring 2018, and Natalie Harp, his current assistant, show how this works in Trump's world. Hicks came into the family business through Ivanka Trump in her early twenties and became one of Donald Trump's closest confidants. Her beauty was constantly commented on by him and others. Her power lay in the fact that she understood him, knew how to interpret his moods and interests.
Harp, in turn, is there to feed Trump news and flatter him. In a letter she wrote that she wanted to serve him and make him happy. She is not formally a top official, but appears to be closer to the president than many ministers. Hicks, Harp and, thirty years ago, Sprague: They had different jobs but the same mission of anticipating the needs of a powerful man. This gives power in a personalistic system.
Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is the counterexample to the idea that Trump only values young, glamorous women. Her power comes from experience and the ability to manage a man where several male chiefs of staff have failed. So it's not just about standard beauty, but about different types of closeness that are effective in Trump's environment.
Before Leavitt, six other women from Trump's administration left their posts, including secretaries and agency heads: Tulsi Gabbard, Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Susan Monarez and Tricia McLaughlin. Until early summer, all of the departures at cabinet level this year were women, and their successors are men. The Washington Post noted that no previous administration had seen so many women leave at this level in a comparable period of time.
But that doesn't mean Trump fires women more often. On the contrary, the working environment in the White House seems “toxic” for both genders; the wear and tear is legendary. Kathryn Dunn Tenpas from the Brookings Institution documents the fluctuation in the president's inner circle. By the end of Trump's first term, 92 percent of the original top positions on his "A-Team," or key employees, had changed incumbents at least once. After the first year it was 34 percent, compared to nine percent under Barack Obama and 17 percent under Ronald Reagan.
Among the male departures were Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, H. R. McMaster and Rex Tillerson; Anthony Scaramucci lasted eleven days. Trump's second term in office is no more stable in terms of personnel: more than half of the closest team has already changed. The environment is just as unfavorable for men; it is characterized by loyalty tests, whims and conflicting demands. Both genders are exposed to the same Trump, but women, according to anonymous sources from the Daily Mail, also have different expectations.
In addition to lack of sleep, constant availability, ego management and competition, there is also the pressure to be perfect. A male consultant can look like he's been working through the night. A woman may have worked through the night and then has to do the more laborious work of not looking like it in the morning. Men also have to manage Trump’s ego; For women, however, this can also take place through forms of emotional closeness.
Leavitt's popularity also made it clear what role motherhood plays in Trump's world and for MAGA. This is also how a woman can show that she does not deviate from what she wants. The movement propagates a pronatalist ideal: women should have children and see family as fulfillment. The ideal MAGA woman can be powerful. But their power should not challenge the traditional gender order. Her career is ultimately intended to prove the superfluousness of feminism: she can achieve anything without the system or the social distribution of power having to change.
If that doesn't work, a structural contradiction becomes an individual problem. Women have to organize their time better and organize their everyday life and childcare better. Institutions or men or the distribution of care work do not have to change. If you still fail, it is not the model that has failed. The woman just decides, like Leavitt, that she wants to spend more time with her children.
In its demands, MAGA femininity resembles the “girlboss” ideal that it despises. This liberal concept of femininity, which has now fallen into disrepute, also wanted to prove that a woman could have anything if she was ambitious and efficient enough: “Lean In” was the motto, get involved. In Trumpism, selected women also receive the power of emancipation, but at the same time retain the duties of patriarchy. The White House as a workplace shows this particularly clearly.
