Melania Trump would be a first lady out of the ordinary
First lady Melania Trump. If you don't have a clear idea of who Melania Trump is, it's no accident. Donald Trump's wife has spoken very little during the election campaign and no one knows quite what kind of first lady she would be if her husband became president. Her priority right now, she says, is caring for the couple's nine-year-old son.
But if Trump wins the Republican nomination, this multi-lingual Slovenian model will have many decisions to make around his family, his life and the role he wishes to play in American history.
For now, Melania Trump, 45, supports her husband at various events, wearing high fashion outfits. It is seen frequently, but not heard. Her first appearance during the campaign was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in November, when Trump called her family on stage and asked if she wanted to say something.
She stepped up to the microphone and said, "Isn't he the best?" With a heavy foreign accent. “He will be the best president in history. We want them!". Like her husband, she doesn't mess around.
Those present cheered her on and Donald Trump gave her a kiss. She was heard saying, “Thank you, darling. Very pretty".
It was just a moment in the life of this couple who celebrated their 11th anniversary last week. They met in 1998, at a party in Manhattan where Trump, who had just separated from his second wife, asked the then-model Melania Knauss, 24 years his junior, for her phone number. She did not give it to him because Trump had been accompanied, she said.
The following year, however, they were a couple. Trump was seeking the Reform Party nomination with a view to the 2000 election and his girlfriend was asked what kind of first lady she would be.
"It would be very traditional," she told the New York Times. "Like Betty Ford or Jackie Kennedy."
Through a spokeswoman, Trump's wife declined to grant an interview for this article. But some things are known about her:
WHAT HAS NO PRECEDENT
In many ways, Melania Trump would be unprecedented in American political history: She would be the first first lady to be the third wife of a president and the first to be born and raised in a communist country, according to Library historian Carl Anthoni. National First Ladies. She has been seen more "uncovered" than any other first lady, as in the 2006 photo of her pregnant, in a gold bikini at the foot of her husband's private jet in a Vogue magazine production.
WHAT IS NOT
Today, Melania Trump is a married woman, with a son and a much more conventional image as the wife of a presidential hopeful. It would not be the first wife of a president born in another country, since Louisa Adams was born in England. Nor would she be the first first lady married to a divorced man. The first was Nancy Reagan. And she would be the third first lady to work as a model, following in the footsteps of Pat Nixon and Betty Ford.
THE ROLE OF MELANIA
First ladies experts say Melania Trump is smart about not attracting attention, especially if she is not comfortable talking about politics. But sooner or later it is going to have to assume a more public role. Melania Trump studied design and architecture at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, so perhaps she can promote the preservation of historic sites. You could also get more involved in charitable activities. And even using her modeling experience and the fact that she speaks multiple languages to help her husband, who speaks only English, in his activities with foreign dignitaries and at social functions at the White House.
"The best thing is when they take advantage of their experience and try to make it fit in some way with her husband's policies," said Anitai McBride, who was the right hand of First Lady Laura Bush.
DELEGATING FUNCTIONS
Donald Trump has hinted that his daughter Ivanka could play a prominent role in his government. When they ask who she is asking for advice, she says it is her. It was Ivanka, not Melania, who introduced his father when he launched his candidacy. And during the breaks in the Republican debates, Trump met with her and not with her other four children.
IT'S NOT A TOY
Despite her discretion in public, Melania Trump has said on more than one occasion that she is much more than just a pretty face. "I have my own ideas," he said in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar magazine published this month. "I have my own personality, and I think that's something my husband likes."
She has also made it clear that she does not like condescending attitudes.
When visiting Trump's three-story apartment facing Central Park in New York, one of the participants in the television show "The Apprentice", which Trump was driving, told his wife: "You are very, very lucky." .
"Thank you," she replied, holding up a glass of champagne. And she added with a smile: "And she's not lucky?"
