Lara McDowell, a columnist for The Daily Tar Heel, the independent student newspaper of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, argues that the women serving in President Donald Trump's administration have enabled and participated in what she describes as his "campaign of terror." In her op-ed, republished by Alternet, a progressive news and commentary outlet, McDowell contends that women in Trump's orbit should not automatically receive sympathy or be celebrated as symbols of feminist progress because of their career achievements and their positions of power.

Instead, she argues, figures such as Second Lady Usha Vance, the wife of Vice President JD Vance; former Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle; and former Chief of Staff Susie Wiles have used their influence to uphold the same patriarchal and exclusionary systems that historically kept women out of power.

McDowell writes that the women she names have their own controversies and behaviors she views as counterproductive to a progressive society. She notes that Vance, despite being a Yale University law graduate who was raised by a biologist, works under a president who has been accused of sexual misconduct. Guilfoyle, according to McDowell, was ousted as ambassador to Greece over alleged political corruption. Wiles, she writes, spent years at the epicenter of the administration's power as the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff, helping shape its agenda, direct its course, and execute the very policies now defining its legacy. McDowell characterizes the three as co-conspirators.

Even if they are exiled from Trump's camp and left to sink in the fallout, McDowell argues, they deserve neither sympathy nor recognition as victims of the system they helped enforce. "Their identity as women, no matter how many 'first' boxes they check, does not negate the weight of their choices," she writes. In her view, women in Trump's world have chosen power over solidarity with their own gender, even to the detriment of other women.

McDowell also extends her critique to the aesthetics of Trump's female staffers, which she describes as conformist rather than countercultural. "First coined 'Mar-a-Lago face' and now more colloquially known as the general 'MAGA-face,' the aspiration for an infinite fountain of youth within the fascist expectation of perfection and control has manifested in smoothed skin, overfilled facial features, and uncanny valley expressions," she writes. "Rather than mock their appearances, we should instead scrutinize what led them to botch their faces — what did they lose in subjecting themselves to the MAGA mold? What did they gain, personally, politically, and systemically?"

Finally, McDowell argues that the women in Trump's circle have not benefited from their allegiance to him, and that the men around him have gained the most. She points to the laws now in place, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade — the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that established a federal constitutional right to abortion before being overturned in 2022 — which stripped women of their autonomy. "While these women and their superiors continue to escalate the fascist game, our pity for its players absolves them of their blame and the critique they deserve for how they wield their power," she asserts.