Melania Trump, a low-key, high-powered first lady
Despite the mystery that surrounds her, she has shown to have the power to influence her husband.
One of the many things that could begin to end this Tuesday in the United States would be Melania Trump's stay in the White House. The current first lady has cultivated a very low profile from the moment she arrived in Washington, making her perhaps the most mysterious woman to hold the position in decades.
Melania Trump, a 50-year-old Slovenian, is the first foreign woman to hold that position in two centuries: the last was Louisa Adams, the English wife of John Quincy Adams, president between 1825 and 1829. Quiet and impenetrable, all of them They ensure that behind the cameras is where he moves best.
You have to start by remembering that Melania Trump was not exactly eager to start a life at the epicenter of world politics. In fact, she delayed her arrival in Washington DC for a few months after Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election.
Although the official reason was that she wanted Barron, their son, who was a teenager at the time, not to be delayed in her academic career, there were other versions about what happened.
According to a biography about her called The art of her deal: The untold story of Melania Trump, written by journalist Mary Jordan of The Washington Post, her delay was due to She wanted to negotiate a new prenuptial agreement with her husband that would guarantee the rights of her son.
However, and despite her low profile, Melania Trump has shown that she is capable of influencing her husband. She has asked that certain officials be fired, and she succeeded. According to a former friend named Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who wrote a book about their bond between the two, the first lady even managed to prevail over the president's children.
At one point, the president agreed to lift a ban on the possibility of entering the country stuffed wild animals hunted in Africa. The decision was the product of pressure from his sons Donald Jr and Eric, who were dedicated to hunting.
Melania did not like this activity, and the next day, Trump tweeted that the lifting of the restrictions was "on hold" until he could study all the details of the situation in depth.
Perhaps more than any other first lady, criticism of Melania Trump has been the most regular feature that has remained throughout the last four years.
Critics
She was criticized for wearing stilettos in August 2017 to visit hurricane-devastated Texas, and for donning sneakers before getting off the plane.
She was once again in the spotlight on a trip in June 2018 to the US-Mexico border to visit migrant children, for wearing a jacket stamped with the phrase: "I really don't care, do you?"
Perhaps her most recognizable foray into the public sphere has been her Be Best campaign, an initiative with which she sought to combat online bullying. However, she was criticized, mostly alluding to the fact that the main driver of the malpractices was her own husband.
"First ladies face the tremendous challenge of doing a job without a job description and facing almost constant public criticism," Kate Andersen Brower, author of First Women: The Grace and Power of Modern First Ladies, told AFP. United States.
"They can never please everyone at the same time and some first ladies, like Melania, fight more than others," he completed.
Interestingly, Melania has a better approval rating than her husband overall, and is very popular with the president's followers
What would Melania do for four more years in the White House? For Brower, it would take an even lower profile. "She is a very reserved person," she said.
"And although I think we will continue to see her work to help people with opioid addiction and the more traditional tasks of the first lady, we will see her less on the public stage," he completed.
