During Donald Trump’s four years as president, it was widely reported that he had his own bedroom in the White House residence, as wife Melania Trump occupied her own suite.
Now, it’s looks like Trump could have the entire residence to himself if he’s elected this year to return to the White House, with a report saying that his ever-elusive wife has no plans to move back to Washington, D.C., with him.
A handful of “Melania-ologists” have told Axios that the former first lady probably won’t take up full-time residence in the White House. She instead will divide her time between the couple’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, where she’s been living the past four years, and New York City, the location of Trump Tower and of New York University. There have been rumors that her son, Barron Trump, could be going to college at NYU.
Within this part-time first lady arrangement, the Slovenian-born former model would only turn up at the White House for a handful of ceremonial undertakings and special events, such as state dinners, Axios reported. The Axios report, however, didn’t specify whether these undertakings would include Melania’s always controversial approach to decorating the White House at Christmastime.
“Melania does what Melania wants,” said Mary Jordan, a Washington Post associate editor and the author of the book “The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump.” Jordan told Axios that Melania Trump always was a different kind of first lady and didn’t believe that this unelected position put any special obligation on her.
“She’s distancing herself even more from her husband and from the Washington social political scene,” author Kate Andersen Brower also told Axios. “I mean, she clearly hated being in Washington.”
A spokesperson for Melania Trump did not respond to Axios’ request for comment. But it wouldn’t be that surprising to anyone if she decided to distance herself from her husband’s possible second term.
It’s been pretty well established by multiple books and news articles that Melania Trump never enjoyed the messy work of politics. A book about first ladies published in March also suggested that Donald Trump’s wife may not have been the most industrious person to ever hold that job.
Melania Trump did not enjoy receiving requests to make appearances on behalf of her husband’s political agenda when he was president, according to “American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden,” by Katie Rogers, a New York Times White House correspondent.
Melania also “avoided being overscheduled, and at times avoided being scheduled at all,” Rogers also said. Her staff could sometimes convince her to do multiple events on days when they knew she could be “camera ready, with a full designer ensemble, dewy makeup, and a pristine blowout.” But they only were successful about “half the time,” Rogers said.
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Melania Trump has made herself pretty scarce since her husband lost the election in 2020 and the couple left the White House in January 2021, in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Melania Trump certainly hasn’t been a regular presence as he campaigns — and she totally avoided the Manhattan courtroom where he was tried and convicted of 34 felony counts related to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The Trump campaign continues to promise that Trump fans will get to see more of Melania Trump on the campaign trail in the coming months, Axios reported. Trump, meanwhile, acknowledged in February that his wife is a private person, but insisted that she’s invested in his campaign. “She wants to see this country really succeed. She loves the country,” he said.
Whether or not Melania Trump wants to return to serving as first lady, she may be interested in reviving her Be Best campaign, an initiative that was supposed to promote childhood well-being and curb bullying, Axios reported.
Critics have said that the initiative didn’t amount to much more than a few public appearances. Jordan told Axios that Melania Trump would ensure that she has a larger, “better,” and “more qualified” staff this time.
“Now having seen how this works, she would just be wiser and she would be more vocal and more demanding about what the first lady’s office should get,” Jordan said.
