In this last year, more has been known about Melania Trump’s life than in the previous eight. And yet, she remains a total unknown. The Slovenian model who arrived at the White House in 2016 and left in 2020 returns to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue this Monday, although four years ago very few would have imagined it. The presidential residence was never much to the liking of Donald Trump’s wife, but her husband’s electoral victory has once again taken her out of her luxurious residences to settle in freezing Washington. And again, no one knows what she will do, what role she will have, how she will influence her husband’s decisions. As always with Melania Trump, everything remains in the realm of speculation.
The first lady released a memoir last October; According to her, it was a huge success that has led her to the next project: a documentary by Prime Video. This is being recorded and will be about his life and his first steps in the White House, as he revealed to Fox News, the network related to Trumpism and the only one to which he grants – very few – interviews.
“People and my followers want to know more about me, so I had the idea of making a movie about my life,” he told journalist Ainsley Earhardt this week. “My life has been incredible, incredibly active, so I told my agent to reach a deal. We started production in November, we’re shooting now and it’s about my day-to-day life: what I do and what my responsibilities are, because people don’t really know, and they’ll see. It’s day to day, from the transition team to moving, packing, setting up my team, the first lady’s office, what it means to move into the White House and make the residence your home, hiring people what do you need…”.
The deal was juicy: according to the specialized press, about 40 million dollars. The documentary will be directed by Brett Ratner, practically banned from Hollywood for a decade due to his accusations of sexual harassment and his homophobic comments.
The film does not have a release date, but it seems to be going in the same direction as the book. As Shakespeare’s classic would say, much ado about nothing. Days before launching her brief volume, the former model knew well how to make noise: in the final stretch of the electoral campaign, she took a helm and defended women’s right to abortion and to decide about their bodies. Expectations were high but, when the book arrived, the nuts were very few. A sweetened account of her childhood summers in Croatia, her career as a model and her first meetings with her husband, and a brief review of her years in the White House, barely touching on the weighty issues.
But that’s Melania (née Knauss) and that’s how the public has known her for years. If her husband is verbiage, she is silence. If the imminent president has his parallel, alternative reality, hers is unknown. If he doesn’t stop on social media, until he invents his own platform, she posts little content. Her point of view, according to that recent interview, is that people have not always understood or accepted her: “Now I have more support, maybe they only see me as the president’s wife, but I am myself, independent, I have my own thoughts, my yeses and noes, I don’t always agree with what my husband does, and that’s okay. I give him my advice, and sometimes he listens, other times he doesn’t, and that’s okay.” What Melania whispers in Donald’s ear is, of course, unknown; their messages in public, scarce and, at most, through their clothes.
Unlike other first ladies who, already involved in the task, took advantage of the media spotlight, Melania Trump, 54 years old (22 younger than her husband), seems to shy away from it. He is only interested in promoting the cause he champions, BeBest, a platform to fight against child cyberbullying. That is one of the few certainties that is known about this new period of the first lady in the presidential mansion: that she will continue to champion a cause that affects her closely, since she saw how in her previous stage her only son, Barron, was harassed in networks. “I will continue and expand BeBest,” he stated on Fox. “I started in the first term, without support from anyone, I invited platforms to a round table at the White House and I did not have great support. Imagine what I could have done those years if they had supported me to teach children and protect them from social networks and their mental health,” he stated with some resentment.
Barron, who will turn 19 in March, has been and is Melania Trump’s top priority. The boy spent part of his childhood in the White House, but is now an adult studying at New York University and has no intention of returning to live with his parents in that golden cage. “I think he will come to visit us,” responded the now almost first lady in said interview on FoxNews. You can bring friends, organize small events, she assured, “whatever you feel comfortable with.” “As a child we taught them, we guided them, and now we give them wings to fly. “I have always respected Barron, his decisions, what he wants to do, where he wants to be,” he said. The White House doesn’t look like that place.
The Trumps will arrive at the White House on Monday and their transition team will have five hours to make the move, from when the Bidens leave and they enter, from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., the time of the inauguration ceremony. Because the first lady, as she assures, will live primarily in Washington, although it seems not exclusively. “I will be in the White House, but if I need to come to New York I will come to New York, or if I need to go to Palm Beach, I will go to Palm Beach. But my priority is to be a mother, first lady, wife and, starting January 20, serve the country,” she commented on Fox, with an eternal smile.
Although “very busy,” she says, Trump arrives at the White House more relaxed. She is no longer a rookie, she herself has acknowledged, and she has also thrown a hint at the Obamas, stating that in their first time they barely had any information because “the previous administration hid it.” “But this time we have everything: plans, I’ve already packed my bags, I’ve selected the furniture… It’s a different transition.” He needs to hire some staff, but without going overboard, so as to “not waste taxpayers’ money.” And this time she will have another advantage: she will be mistress and mistress. There will not be another royal family in the shadows, because Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the president’s daughter and son-in-law, influential advisors in his first stage, will not be in Washington. The White House is entirely yours. Whether you want it or not.
