Melania Trump bids farewell, evoking her "gratitude"
Being the first lady of the United States has been "the greatest honor of my life," she said in a video posted Monday on Twitter.
Obviously, everyone makes predictions about their future. But Melania Trump, until the end, will have remained a mystery. Late Monday afternoon, the First Lady posted a farewell message as she prepares to leave the White House.
In this speech of nearly 7 minutes, broadcast on Twitter, the social network banned her husband, Melania the mutic retraces her time at the White House. Being America's First Lady has been "the greatest honor of my life," she says, reflecting on her "Be Best" initiative, her work in fighting the opioid crisis and more.
"No words can express the depth of my gratitude for the privilege of having been your First Lady," she assures, first thanking the security forces, the children she met, who lived in difficult conditions, their mothers who sometimes "fought a disease".
The allusion to her husband "Donald" is brief, when she also pays tribute to the agents of the health system confronted with the Covid-19 pandemic in particular. "As Donald and I wrap up our time in the White House, I think of all the people I have kept in my heart and their incredible stories of love, patriotism and determination."
"Violence is never the answer"
Just under two weeks after Trump supporters violently besieged the Capitol building, as Washington DC is padlocked by the National Guard and police awaiting Joe Biden's inauguration ceremony, to which Donald and Melania Trump will not attend, the First Lady advises, “Be passionate in everything you do. But always remember that violence is never the answer and will never be justified ”. She had already condemned the violence, four days after the events.
That we do not see, once again, a pike against her husband. Donald Trump did not call Joe Biden to recognize his victory and launch the transition, a process however institutionalized; Mike Pence, its vice-president, took nearly two months to call Kamala Harris to congratulate her; in the same vein, Melania Trump did not invite Jill Biden, wife of Joe Biden, to visit the White House, the Oval Office and have tea. The gesture has been a tradition since 1952, when Bess Truman invited Mamie Eisenhower to discover her future residence.
Because “Flotus” - the acronym of the expression “First lady of the United States” - was shown to be more political and determined than observers imagined when it took over from the brilliant Michelle Obama. Blame it on Donald, who praised only the beauty of his wife, her elegance, her outfits, a potiche woman, in short, while he put forward the intelligence and strength of his daughter Ivanka, propelled counselor. It is also the fault of the snakes that had to be swallowed at high speed, such as the scandal of the porn actress Stormy Daniels, to whom the Trump campaign team paid $ 130,000 to buy his silence, which she did not did not keep.
Melania, a former model born in the former Yugoslavia, fluent in five languages with a slight Slovene accent, familiar with social affairs, quickly corrected the mistakes of the beginnings, when she had plagiarized a speech by Michelle Obama, or when she had come to support in stilettos the Texan victims of Hurricane Harvey. Year after year, silent presence next to her husband hiding her gaze behind huge sunglasses, she however traced her path with confidence, alone, and did not fail to orchestrate her disagreements with him. Without letting go of it.
This solidity made her an ultimately popular First Lady: last summer, according to a YouGov poll, she was the third most admired woman in the country, behind Michelle Obama and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As in 2016, Trump's communicators wanted to use it in the home stretch of the campaign. She did not hesitate to ask for "four more years" for her husband, anxious to make him keep the White House. Deduce that she wanted to stay there herself? No one can tell.
