Mira Tzur, a former Israeli soldier turned model, made a name for herself as a Melania Trump impersonator due to her striking resemblance to the former First Lady. According to The Sun, she meticulously matched Melania’s style, even wearing blue contact lenses to mimic her eyes, reading about world affairs, and choosing outfits that mirrored Melania’s fashion choices.
However, her career as an impersonator was derailed by one major mistake—an amateurish hairstylist’s blunder in 2019. Tzur, who had “beautiful chestnut-colored hair with highlights,” sought a new look, but the hairstylist left her with “short purple bangs that had been chemically burned to a crisp,” according to lawsuit documents.
Her hair became “brittle” and started “breaking all over,” leading to bald spots. To prevent further damage, Tzur resorted to sleeping on silk pillowcases. After consulting multiple hairstylists, they informed her that it would take at least a year for her hair to return to its original condition, with some even suggesting she get a wig—an idea that crushed her career.
Tzur’s resemblance to Melania was her bread and butter, and she was devastated. She filed a lawsuit against the hairstylist, stating, “Thus, it was now confirmed: [Tzur] could no longer work as a Melania Trump impersonator or do TV appearances, as her hair color and texture no longer looked like Melania’s.” Instead, her appearance began to resemble that of raven-haired Angelina Jolie, which, of course, was not her goal at all.
Before her career was sidetracked, Tzur was making $3000 an hour as Melania’s impersonator. She had worked with John DiDomenico, America’s highest-paid Donald Trump impersonator, according to The Daily Beast. Tzur filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court, seeking unspecified damages, claiming the incident caused her “extreme emotional distress, scalp pain… physical pain, public scorn, mental anguish, and future medical expenses and other monetary damages.”
Tzur’s path to fame began after emigrating to the United States in 1995 and becoming a U.S. citizen in 1996. She had appeared in ads for brands like Advil, Neutrogena, and Viagra, and was also a trained ballet dancer. In 2017, Tzur explained to The Times of Israel that she related to Melania on many levels, from their shared initials to their careers as models and their similarities as immigrants.
However, after the 2017 U.S. presidential election, she lost many friends due to her role as Melania but maintained that she is an actress and “It’s a role that I choose to play,” keeping it “very neutral and politically correct.”