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100 Days of Trump Style

Amid the chaos of President Trump’s first 100 days — norms upended, tariffs levied and tariffs paused, confrontations in the courts — one thing has remained consistent. Dependable even.

The administration’s look, and just how much it matters.

Mr. Trump’s cultivation of his own image (suit and tie and hair and tan) has been so relentless that it has become shorthand for all that he represents. So, too, when it comes to those around him: his cabinet secretaries, closest aides and family members. Together they convey, as potently as any executive order, the value system that the president claims to represent and the promises on which he has built his second term.

In the world of the endless, and increasingly unmediated, scroll, where pictures are the first line of communication and the president is the executive producer of everyone’s reality show, the costumes have become central to the messaging. They act as accessories to the executive orders that challenge the status quo, the separation of powers and the bounds of legality. They are — of course — less important than such orders, but they are part of the pitch.

Mr. Trump’s first 100 days are partly a story of an administration where looking the part is crucial to playing the part. Where the very meaning of gender is codified in clothing and hair — facial or flowing — as well as by fiat. Where the secretary of defense has built a glam room in the Pentagon for promotional appearances. Where the refusal of the Ukrainian president to don a suit for the Oval Office becomes a public symbol of his refusal to kowtow. Clothes are a coded sign of fealty, and fealty is a nonnegotiable quality, best worn on the sleeve.

What does this administration stand for? Its actions may be messy, but its style is strategic. Just because the dress sometimes seems weirdly close to cosplay does not mean it is not also effective. The insinuation: Do not believe what you hear or what you read. Believe your eyes!