Melania Trump: what now?
After the defeat of Donald Trump, questions are being raised about the hitherto first lady, whose relationship with her husband is cold and distant. Some experts even talk about divorce
Melania Trump never thought of victory. She never believed that she would be first lady, that she would live at least four years in the White House. She never trusted the triumph of her husband, Donald Trump, in those elections held four years ago, and the 2016 election night ended in tears. That was known a couple of years ago. What has become known now is that she wants her husband, after losing the elections, to stop pursuing his chimera of remaining in command of the United States and to acknowledge his defeat. Probably, and like four years ago, I thought I would lose. A sinking that, according to those close to her, would be liberating for her. Because what some groups in Washington are already talking about is Melania's intention to separate from Donald Trump.
The still first lady of the country, 50 years old, is a woman about whom little is known. She hardly gives interviews and is not exactly expressive. Beyond some official acts and forced smiles, her relationship with the president is not as expressive as that of the Obamas, as warm as that of the Bushes, nor does it denote the colleague of the Clintons. Among them they are cold, sometimes even unfriendly. There are many and very famous rudeness that has been done and that show the mutual tension: he asks her to smile and she refuses; he takes an umbrella but leaves her outside in the rain; he tries to shake her hand and she pulls away.
Since Election Day last Tuesday, Melania Trump has only appeared once. She was dressed in black and with her husband on the night of November 4. In addition, she has only posted a message on her social networks. It reads that "the American people deserve a fair election." "Every legal vote, not illegal," says the first lady, "must be counted. We must protect our democracy with total transparency ”. Some words that seem far from her intentions. According to CNN, which uses family sources, the former model would have advised her husband to accept defeat, something that her daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump would have also done, as well as her husband, Jared Kushner. However, her older sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, would want her to keep fighting and even go to court.
Now, however, several leaks go a step further. Whoever was her best friend and adviser for years, Stephanie Wolkoff, and who wrote a critical book published a few weeks ago, assures that the couple has a "purely transactional marriage" in the Daily Mail newspaper. We must not forget that in that volume the Melania's intimate character described her as an extremely pragmatic person with “crocodile skin”. As an example, Wolkoff speaks of the accusations of harassment that the president has had, that the Slovenian has lived in the first person, and of which he affirms: “He was radiant, smiling. It was as if nothing had happened ”.
To reaffirm his opinion, Wolkoff details that the couple sleep in separate rooms inside the White House (as CNN reporter Kate Bennett had already revealed) or that the Slovenian is negotiating a separation agreement that ensures that their only child in common, Barron, 14, obtained a substantial percentage of the president's fortune, estimated by Forbes at about 2.1 billion euros, according to September estimates.
After 15 years of marriage, Wolkoff, who knows Melania well, is not the only one talking about a broken couple. Omarosa Manigault Newman, who was a reality television star and adviser to Trump for 11 months —a time she took the opportunity to write a juicy book—, the African-American woman who came to hold the highest office in the Trump administration, affirms that “Melania is counting the minutes until he leaves office and she can get a divorce. "
"If Melania were to try to force a last humiliation and leave him while he continues his mandate, he would already find a way to punish her," says now the author of the political best-seller Unhinged (Volatile), which became among Amazon's best-selling books.
Who does not open his mouth is, obviously, Melania Trump herself. If she is by her husband's side and supports him, she is silent out of caution and fidelity. But if she's really willing to leave him, she prefers silence for her own safety, for the sake of her son ... and probably by contract. It is not known what the couple's prenuptial agreement will be like, but it is known that Trump's with whom he was his second wife, Marla Maples, the mother of his daughter Tiffany, included a clause that she could not publish any books or speak critically towards him in interviews or talks. Something that would be repeated in this case.
For the moment, her gestures say more about her than her words. As early as 2016, it took her nearly half a year to move from New York to the White House, stating that her son had to finish the school year there. Also known is her lack of connection with Ivanka Trump, the president's favorite, whom she disparagingly calls "princess." But also the great power he has over the president, on whom he influences more than some want to see.
In any case, Melania is not a victim, a woman in need of liberation or rescue, as those popular “Free Melania” posters shout. She herself stated in one of her few interviews, a couple of years ago, that she felt “the most harassed person in the world” and that she knew of the comments that were generated around her, often fabricated and, at times, painful: "I am very strong and I know what my priorities are." Something that fits perfectly with what Wolkoff says in his book, a description that may have a lot to do with his next steps: "He knows perfectly who he has married. She knew where he was getting, and so did he."
