Melania and Donald Trump's time as First Lady and President of the USA ends. Many observers are sure that Melania will separate from her husband. Why it could be different.
Donald, 74, and Melania Trump, 50, are an unequal couple at first glance: he is loud, rowdy and impulsive, she is calm, polite and disciplined. He loves the spotlight, she avoids it. And then there is the age difference of 24 years. But one should not be fooled by these obvious differences, says "Washington Post" journalist Mary Jordan, 60.
She writes about the First Lady in her book "The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump": “She is seen as a kind-hearted princess who must be saved from her predatory and bullying husband; as a vulnerable immigrant, overwhelmed by presidential ambitions and crying the night he was elected; as a mindless and superficial model who doesn't have much to say about the world; as a happy beauty who was just in the right place at the right time. But she is none of it. "
Melania Trump – that's how she rolls
Confident is a word that comes to mind when reading what Melania said about herself in a 2016 interview with Mary Jordan. She is not someone who is looking for attention or has a great need to communicate. The obvious conclusion for many observers that she is shy, she firmly rejected: "I speak when I want it and not when someone else wants it." This handwriting also bears her "term of office" as First Lady. In contrast to her predecessor Michelle Obama, 57, and despite the criticism of the media, Melania was seen and heard very little. Their largest project, the children's aid initiative "Be Best", went more or less under the radar. Nevertheless, as a friend of hers said, over time she "enjoyed" the role as first lady and loved life in Washington.
Melania Trump must be anything but liberated, says Mary Jordan. She is a kind of mirror of Donald Trump: "independent, ambitious, image-conscious, unsentimental and cautious towards those outside her inner circle." Mary Jordan writes that her loner instinct leads to the fact that the Trumps hardly have any friends – and lead a separate life. They are "often in the same building, but rarely in the same room."
This was also evident at the beginning of Trump's term of office: It was not until June 2017, five months after the inauguration and the end of the current school year, that Melania moved to Washington with her son Barron (then 11). The president accepted it. Their independence from each other is "part of their deal and it is both right", writes journalist Mary Jordan about the Trumps.
This is what the first lady says about her marriage
"We have great chemistry and to be with a man like my husband you have to know who you are," Melania Trump explained in an interview with Barbara Walters, 91, in 2015. "You have to live a very independent life lead and support him, you have to be very smart and quick and be there for him when he needs you. " Melania remained true to this principle even when it became public that her husband had cheated on her shortly after the wedding – with a porn actress named Stormy Daniels, 41, who subsequently even received hush money from Trump's lawyer.
"That is neither my concern nor my focus. I am a mother and the first lady, and I have more important things to think and do," said Melania Trump in an interview with "ABC News" in October 2018. Their loyalty paid off: Also in 2018, claims Mary Jordan, Trump had the marriage contract revised in favor of Melanias and Barrons.
On a confrontation with Donald Trump
After Trump's four-year term in office, many observers are left with the opinion that Melania Trump has distanced herself too little and too seldom from her husband. But they did exist, these moments. Not only when she struck away the offered hand of her husband in front of everyone. But for example in 2018, when Donald Trump's zero tolerance policy on illegal immigration led to the separation of children and parents on the border with Mexico. Melania showed up twice on site to get a picture for herself. The jacket she wore on the occasion will not be forgotten, with the inscription "I really don’t care – do you?", "I really don’t care – and you?" – a statement to her critics, as Melania later admitted.
After the visit, Melania Trump told ABC TV station: "It was heartbreaking." On pointing out that her husband's politics had led to the situation, she replied, "Yes, and I let him know. I told him it was unacceptable." In fact, Donald Trump then stopped the family separation – a sign that Melania's influence on him may be greater than expected.
Shortly before the change of power in the White House, the First Lady made a final statement. On January 11, 2021, she announced that she was "disappointed and discouraged" by storming the Capitol and condemned the riot with the words: "Violence is never acceptable."
And Donald Trump? He knows very well what he has in his wife. And so he said goodbye to the nation the day before Joe Biden's inauguration, saying that he felt an "overwhelming gratitude for the love and support of our spectacular First Lady Melania".
No divorce with the trumps?
Melania counts the hours until Donald Trump's term of office ends and wished for nothing more than a divorce – an assumption that is as old as the 2016 US election itself. The fact is: the initial "Free Melania" shouts have fallen silent. The first lady took the opportunity to position her as an independent person, says Mary Jordan. She concludes her book with the words: "Melania got a complicated deal with a complicated man and got a complicated job. She wasn't Jackie Kennedy, Hilary Clinton or anyone else. She was Melania and she made this deal her own. " Just as she made her marriage a deal – one that could keep Team Trump together even after the end in the White House.
Source used: "The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump" by Mary Jordan, published in 2020 by "Simon & Schuster"
This article originally appeared on Gala.de.