‘Trump administration isn’t even trying to hide the aliens’: Who is Barbera Thornhill? 78-year-old envoy and inventor’s daughter compared to Susan Dell over ‘Mar-a-Lago face’

Barbera Thornhill, the newly appointed ‘Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons,’ became the latest victim of online trolling. It is also during a time when Dell CEO Michael Dell’s wife, Susan, was photographed during a recent White House meeting that created a major internet firestorm. Some users found the California-based philanthropist’s expressions odd, some even compared her to aliens and wondered if she had undergone plastic surgery.

In the same way, X users, after seeing Barbera Thornhill’s recent appointment and official photograph attached to it, announced by Assistant Secretary Riley Barnes on October 13, started comparing her to Dell and wondered if she, too, had plastic surgery.

X users linked Barbera Thornhill’s face to “Mar-a-Lago face”

“Did Barbera Thornhill do plastic surgery? It is obvious,” one user asked a chatbot on X. Comparing the 78-year-old to aliens, one X user jokingly wrote, “The Trump administration isn't even trying to hide the aliens anymore!”


Some of the criticism outrightly linked her with the phrase of “Mar-a-Lago face.” It is a “modern aristocratic mask - surgically sculpted to convey affluence, precision, and control. It’s not about reversing time. It’s about rewriting the rules of aging,” Dr. Shervin Naderi, world-renowned facial plastic surgeon and founder of The Naderi Center, told Virginia Facial Plastic Surgery.

Did Barbera Thornhill Get Plastic Surgery?

Some X users pointed out to her a wrinkle-free face and forehead, and assumed she had undergone plastic surgery. For a 78-year-old person, her eyes were also opened wide, a few X users noticed. UK-based Aesthetics and skincare expert Amish Patel has discussed with The Mirror US about what type of alteration she might have undergone to achieve her look.

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“Looking through photos of Barbera over the years, Barbera‘s face seems to change after 2009 because in 2014 we can see that her eyes look different so it’s possible that she may have had some surgery around her eye area,” he said.

“Blepharoplasty can open the eye more by giving an eye lift, but a brow lift can also smooth the forehead and help open up the eyes,” he added.

Patel shared another difference with the outlet, “Her chin and jawline look sharper in later pictures, which again could suggest some aesthetic intervention, perhaps surgery or other procedures which tighten the skin, such as radiofrequency and perhaps strategic filler placement.”

In conclusion, he said, “For someone of her age, we would expect to see more wrinkles, but her face is very smooth, so again this could be down to Botox and maybe chemical peels.”

But we do not know if she had a plastic surgery or not, as Thornhill has not publicly confirmed any cosmetic procedure.

Barbera Thornhill is the daughter of an inventor

Keeping aside the speculation and internet trolling, Barbera has been serious about her new role since June this year, when she got to know that she was nominated for the post.

“I came from a loving family in North Carolina long known for its involvement in healthcare and charitable work,” Barbera wrote in her statement then.

According to Barbera, her father was an ENT and an inventor of a medical device. “My mother, a pediatrician, was one of the first women to go to Duke Medical School and my father, an ENT, invented the procedure known as ‘Stapedectomy,’ an operation that led to the Cochlear implant - a device that has helped millions of people hear again,” she wrote.

“But more than his skill as a surgeon, it was my father’s commitment to treating underserved people and providing them with blessings that we so often take for granted that inspires me even now and motivates me every day,” she added in that statement.