Melania Trump showed poise during long campaign, transition
Her life will change forever Friday, when she becomes first lady of the United States. Melania Trump is up for the challenge. She brings a unique, valuable skill set to the White House that includes poise, glamour and mettle honed during her years as a supermodel, wife, mother and businesswoman.
Mrs. Trump, who is at home on the global stage, is taking the future in stride, and on her own terms. From the earliest days of President Trump’s quest for office, she made it clear that a priority was her young son, Barron. She plans no immediate move to the nation’s capital until his school year is complete.
She also has held the press at bay. Mrs. Trump made minimal personal appearances on the raucous campaign trail and gave few interviews, though her rare encounters with journalists revealed thoughtful candor.
“I chose not to be on the campaign. I made that choice. I have my own mind. I am my own person, and I think my husband likes that about me,” Mrs. Trump told Harper’s Bazaar last year.
She is his No. 1 fan.
“He wants America to be great again, and he can do that. He is a great leader — the best leader, an amazing negotiator. America needs that. And he believes in America. He believes in its potential and what it can be,” she continued.
Melania Trump refuses to act like a first lady. Good for her.
Melania Trump will be the first first lady in more than 200 years not to move into the White House on Inauguration Day. Her decision will cause her husband’s budding administration headaches that could be easily avoided by following tradition, including dealing with public outrage over the high cost of maintaining a full-time residence in Manhattan and increased security risks.
By continuing her life as usual, Mrs. Trump will also deny the administration certain advantages, such as the feel–good media coverage that results from having a new family in the White House — no small thing for a president–elect with historically low approval ratings.
But as far as we can tell, Melania Trump doesn’t care. And that is actually a step forward for presidential wives.
There aren’t many things about the Office of the First Lady that haven’t irked feminists and gender scholars. After all, the first lady is an unpaid, unofficial government representative whose roles and influence are defined almost entirely in respect to her relationship with her husband.
It is precisely this construction of women’s identity that Betty Friedan critiqued in “The Feminine Mystique.” It is also one reason social scientists have shied away from studying first ladies, directing their attention instead to women in elected office, and consequently, exacerbating the irresponsible double stereotype of first ladies as powerless political bystanders and unworthy topics of serious academic consideration.
Despite receiving no compensation inside or outside the White House, first ladies shoulder a disproportionate amount of the communications responsibility delegated to presidential surrogates due to their unique status and unmatched favorability, as my research shows. First ladies have made more public remarks than vice presidents across the past three administrations, and almost 30 percent of Laura Bush’s and Michelle Obama’s public speeches were delivered in a campaign setting, aimed to further the electoral prospects of their husbands or their husbands’ political allies.
Melania Trump represented a sharp divergence from this level of activity throughout the Trump campaign, rarely appearing on the trail except for a few high-profile speeches and interviews. But the content of these were, admittedly, very gendered. She often talked about her private sphere roles as a wife and a mother, and spent much of her time on the news circuit defending her husband in light of his misogynistic remarks and against allegations of sexual assault. It is understandable, for these reasons, that she has not emerged from the 2016 campaign season narrative as a champion of women’s equality.
Yet for those of us who came of age during the emergence of a boundless and empowering third-wave feminism that is supposed to acknowledge the diverse experiences and preferences of all women, it should not seem outrageous or be difficult to consider her a victim of sexism rather than a contributor to it, or to praise her dissident actions instead of condemning her conformist ones.
To reject the exercise entirely would be an embarrassing manifestation of the very problem that today’s feminist gatekeepers purportedly seek to remedy: prejudice against women who don’t share certain priorities or perspectives.
Not only have women’s groups been reluctant to defend Melania Trump, but prominent feminists have lambasted her. Throughout the election season, Melania Trump was slut-shamed for posing nude, referred to as a “trophy spouse,” accused of working as an escort and mocked for her appearance and accent. Again diverging from the typical presidential campaign playbook, which calls for spouses to actively enhance the positive image of the candidates, rather than distracting from it or causing controversy, she responded rather aggressively to these attacks, threatening to sue several news publications for defamation.
It was surely not the best strategic move for her husband’s campaign, which was already struggling to garner favor with the media. But Melania Trump was defending herself, not the Trump campaign.
And instead of making excuses for her modeling career in an effort to court social conservatives during the Republican primary, she responded bravely and unapologetically. “I’m very proud I did those pictures,” she said in a CNN interview. “I’m not ashamed of my body … and it was done as art and as a celebration of the female body.”
Melania Trump may be the least popular presidential spouse since Hillary Clinton, and she has shirked most opportunities to build up her favorability and relatability — or her husband’s — by making targeted public appearances that would the benefit the Trump administration.
However, in her apparent refusal to adhere to a path first ladies have followed for decades, she may lessen the burden placed on future presidential spouses, allowing them respite from some of the duties feminists have long lamented. Melania Trump is doing Melania Trump, and in the era of the permanent campaign, that is something worthy of recognition.
Melania Trump dons gold on eve of inauguration
Melania Trump is ringing in inauguration eve in gold.
The future first lady donned a long gold Reem Acra column dress for dinner with campaign donors held at Union Station Thursday night Washington, D.C.
Earlier in the day, Melania chose a black Norisol Ferrari military-style knee-length coat and matching fitted dress in black for a wreath laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
Acra is a Hollywood favorite, most recently worn by Kristen Wiig and Emily Ratajkowski at the Golden Globes. The designer is a native of Beirut who has also lived in Paris and Hong Kong.
Melania Trump spoke earlier in the day at a Thursday luncheon, when Trump met with GOP congressional leaders. The president-elect invited Melania to address the crowd. "Tomorrow we're starting the work," she said, adding that "there's a lot of possibility and a lot to take care of."
Mrs. Trump, who is at home on the global stage, is taking the future in stride, and on her own terms. From the earliest days of President Trump’s quest for office, she made it clear that a priority was her young son, Barron. She plans no immediate move to the nation’s capital until his school year is complete.
She also has held the press at bay. Mrs. Trump made minimal personal appearances on the raucous campaign trail and gave few interviews, though her rare encounters with journalists revealed thoughtful candor.
“I chose not to be on the campaign. I made that choice. I have my own mind. I am my own person, and I think my husband likes that about me,” Mrs. Trump told Harper’s Bazaar last year.
She is his No. 1 fan.
“He wants America to be great again, and he can do that. He is a great leader — the best leader, an amazing negotiator. America needs that. And he believes in America. He believes in its potential and what it can be,” she continued.
 |
| Melania Trump, born Melanija Knavs in her native Slovenia, married President-elect Donald Trump after the couple met at a party in New York. The billionaire, real estate mogul and reality-TV star then vigorously pursued her despite her initial rebuffs. She will become first lady on Friday afternoon. (Associated Press photographs) |
Melania Trump refuses to act like a first lady. Good for her.
Melania Trump will be the first first lady in more than 200 years not to move into the White House on Inauguration Day. Her decision will cause her husband’s budding administration headaches that could be easily avoided by following tradition, including dealing with public outrage over the high cost of maintaining a full-time residence in Manhattan and increased security risks.
By continuing her life as usual, Mrs. Trump will also deny the administration certain advantages, such as the feel–good media coverage that results from having a new family in the White House — no small thing for a president–elect with historically low approval ratings.
But as far as we can tell, Melania Trump doesn’t care. And that is actually a step forward for presidential wives.
There aren’t many things about the Office of the First Lady that haven’t irked feminists and gender scholars. After all, the first lady is an unpaid, unofficial government representative whose roles and influence are defined almost entirely in respect to her relationship with her husband.
It is precisely this construction of women’s identity that Betty Friedan critiqued in “The Feminine Mystique.” It is also one reason social scientists have shied away from studying first ladies, directing their attention instead to women in elected office, and consequently, exacerbating the irresponsible double stereotype of first ladies as powerless political bystanders and unworthy topics of serious academic consideration.
Despite receiving no compensation inside or outside the White House, first ladies shoulder a disproportionate amount of the communications responsibility delegated to presidential surrogates due to their unique status and unmatched favorability, as my research shows. First ladies have made more public remarks than vice presidents across the past three administrations, and almost 30 percent of Laura Bush’s and Michelle Obama’s public speeches were delivered in a campaign setting, aimed to further the electoral prospects of their husbands or their husbands’ political allies.
Melania Trump represented a sharp divergence from this level of activity throughout the Trump campaign, rarely appearing on the trail except for a few high-profile speeches and interviews. But the content of these were, admittedly, very gendered. She often talked about her private sphere roles as a wife and a mother, and spent much of her time on the news circuit defending her husband in light of his misogynistic remarks and against allegations of sexual assault. It is understandable, for these reasons, that she has not emerged from the 2016 campaign season narrative as a champion of women’s equality.
Yet for those of us who came of age during the emergence of a boundless and empowering third-wave feminism that is supposed to acknowledge the diverse experiences and preferences of all women, it should not seem outrageous or be difficult to consider her a victim of sexism rather than a contributor to it, or to praise her dissident actions instead of condemning her conformist ones.
To reject the exercise entirely would be an embarrassing manifestation of the very problem that today’s feminist gatekeepers purportedly seek to remedy: prejudice against women who don’t share certain priorities or perspectives.
Not only have women’s groups been reluctant to defend Melania Trump, but prominent feminists have lambasted her. Throughout the election season, Melania Trump was slut-shamed for posing nude, referred to as a “trophy spouse,” accused of working as an escort and mocked for her appearance and accent. Again diverging from the typical presidential campaign playbook, which calls for spouses to actively enhance the positive image of the candidates, rather than distracting from it or causing controversy, she responded rather aggressively to these attacks, threatening to sue several news publications for defamation.
It was surely not the best strategic move for her husband’s campaign, which was already struggling to garner favor with the media. But Melania Trump was defending herself, not the Trump campaign.
And instead of making excuses for her modeling career in an effort to court social conservatives during the Republican primary, she responded bravely and unapologetically. “I’m very proud I did those pictures,” she said in a CNN interview. “I’m not ashamed of my body … and it was done as art and as a celebration of the female body.”
Melania Trump may be the least popular presidential spouse since Hillary Clinton, and she has shirked most opportunities to build up her favorability and relatability — or her husband’s — by making targeted public appearances that would the benefit the Trump administration.
However, in her apparent refusal to adhere to a path first ladies have followed for decades, she may lessen the burden placed on future presidential spouses, allowing them respite from some of the duties feminists have long lamented. Melania Trump is doing Melania Trump, and in the era of the permanent campaign, that is something worthy of recognition.
Melania Trump dons gold on eve of inauguration
Melania Trump is ringing in inauguration eve in gold.
The future first lady donned a long gold Reem Acra column dress for dinner with campaign donors held at Union Station Thursday night Washington, D.C.
Earlier in the day, Melania chose a black Norisol Ferrari military-style knee-length coat and matching fitted dress in black for a wreath laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.
Acra is a Hollywood favorite, most recently worn by Kristen Wiig and Emily Ratajkowski at the Golden Globes. The designer is a native of Beirut who has also lived in Paris and Hong Kong.
Melania Trump spoke earlier in the day at a Thursday luncheon, when Trump met with GOP congressional leaders. The president-elect invited Melania to address the crowd. "Tomorrow we're starting the work," she said, adding that "there's a lot of possibility and a lot to take care of."
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