Jarring Photos Of Kristi Noem's Thin Lips Before Fillers

Within the remarkable cult of personality that President Donald Trump has curated for his second administration, it seems some cabinet members may have benefited from fitting a certain homogenous aesthetic. For former Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem, her complete style transformation could have contributed to her appointment, at least temporarily.

Part of the process of overhauling her overall look included several Mar-a-Lago face trend indicators, with Noem's cheekbones getting fuller, her forehead smoothed out, and her lips pumped full of possible filler. All of this makes looking at throwback photos of Noem before her probable plastic surgery feel all the more jarring, especially when you see her natural lips.

Older pictures of Noem show just how much smaller her lips used to be; in fact, her entire mouth seemed buttoned up compared to what it would become. This makes sense considering the drastic face and style transformation Noem has undergone, but that doesn't make the comparisons any less jarring. In fact, there have been several brutal reminders of what Noem's thin, pursed lips looked like before she morphed into a MAGA mouthpiece.

There's ample proof that Kristi Noem is obsessed with how she looks, and her erratic transformations tend to prove it. As evidenced by the photo on the left from March 2011, Noem boasts a full face of overdone makeup, including bright red, glossy lips. However, when compared to the photo on the right from her time at the 2024 Republican National Convention, it's clear that her lips would have all but disappeared if it weren't for the application of such a bold color.

Considering just how often Kristi Noem's lips look over-stuffed and ready to burst, witnessing what they looked like before filler can come as a shock. Compare the above photo on the left of Noem during a November 2010 news conference to the one from 2026 on the right. Though much has changed, from her makeup routine to her eyebrow placement, it's especially jarring to see how her lips have shifted. Noem's new mouth is both larger and wider than what she had to work with in 2010.

With all the alleged work Kristi Noem has had done, it makes sense that there would be some intense photo comparisons showing what Noem used to look like. Above, we see Noem on the left giving a speech at CPAC in February 2011; on the right, Noem attends a press conference on January 8, 2026. What's striking here is how lovely Noem's natural mouth was in the throwback photo. Her lips are needlessly filled in the snap from 2026, and her choice of lipstick isn't doing her any favors, either.

In this throwback photo from June 2011, Kristi Noem was pushing the limits of her makeup while giving remarks to journalists. Her foundation was overly caked on, while her choice of bronzer was several shades in the wrong direction. Combined with the muted rust color of her lipstick, her tiny, natural lips failed to stand out, ultimately becoming part of one of Noem's most jarring makeup disasters.

In the above side-by-side image, it's clear that possible filler use has helped bulk up all aspects of Kristi Noem's lips, especially her top lip. In the photo on the left of Noem at a news conference in February 2012, her upper lip was so thin that it would've been nearly invisible if it weren't for her lipstick. Noem's lip filler progression is even more shocking when you see just how much fuller her top lip looks in the image on the right, taken during Noem's time in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in March 2026. 

While both of these photos prove that Kristi Noem's cakey makeup should never be photographed up close, no matter what era, they also show how her preferred choice of lip color seems to make everything more severe. Noem rocks the same shade of lipstick in these images from January 2014 (on the left) and January 2026 (on the right). What's jarring is how different it looks on her larger lips in comparison to her much thinner mouth from 12 years prior. Though it's too dark a shade either way, at least it helped give her thinner lips some definition.