Melania Trump, the discreet primera dama
The first lady is a great political enigma but is believed to have a great influence on her husband
Unlike her husband, she has projected calm and compassion in the COVID crisis and racial tensions
Along with an excessive Donald Trump in everything, Melania, the third wife of the American president, has been a low-key source of support for the Republican leader, usually off camera. In a book published last year, CNN reporter Kate Bennett said the first lady is "much more powerful and influential with her husband" than the public knows. In 2018, she asked for a senior adviser to the president to be fired, and this was done.
Political enigma
But Melania remains largely an enigma, at least in political terms. And when she has been placed in the spotlight, she has received criticism. Her campaign against bullying 'Be Best' was not well received. Also her wardrobe choices have caused a lot of comments and not always positive.
"First ladies face the tremendous challenge of doing a job without a job description and facing almost constant criticism," Kate Andersen Brower, author of 'First Ladies: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies,' told AFP. United'. "They can never please everyone at the same time and some first ladies, like Melania, fight more than others."
Born in Slovenia
She was born Melanija Knavs in April 1970 in Slovenia, then part of Yugoslavia. Her mother worked in the fashion industry and her father was a car salesman. She studied design and architecture before leaving for Milan and Paris to start her career as a model. That led her to the United States in 1996, where she met Trump two years later.
The first lady has said that becoming a US citizen in 2006 was "the greatest privilege on planet Earth." With Trump, she experienced a life of luxury.
At first, Melania did not seem to agree with her husband's presidential aspirations. "She said, 'We have such a great life. Why do you want to do this?'" She once said to the former real estate mogul, according to 'The Washington Post.'
Melania eventually became America's first foreign-born first lady since Louisa Adams, the English wife of John Quincy Adams, who was president between 1825 and 1829.
Questioned style
Donald Trump entered the White House in January 2017, but Melania and her son Barron only joined him in June, after the then 11-year-old completed his school year.
"We look forward to the memories we will create in our new home! #Movingday," Melania wrote on Twitter at the time. But in Washington, she quickly felt the harshness of political life.
She was criticized for wearing stilettos in August 2017 to visit Texas, devastated by floods, and donning sneakers before getting off the plane.
She later returned to the spotlight on a June 2018 trip to the US-Mexico border to visit migrant children, for wearing a jacket stamped with the phrase, "I don't really care, do you?" She also didn't help sporting a white colonial-style helmet during a safari in Kenya a few months later.
For Ohio University history professor Katherine Jellison, Melania Trump could improve her image if she "would make more public appearances and give more interviews, but of course she should choose her words and wardrobe of her carefully. "
"Popular"
Her main strength as first lady has been her ability to project calm and compassion, unlike her husband, on hot topics like COVID-19 and racial tensions.
Although she has been largely absent from the election campaign this year, partly due to the coronavirus that affected her personally, her speech at the Republican nominating convention in August was praised. "Every time he needs her for a big show of support, she shows up," Jellison said.
Brower noted that Melania is "extraordinarily popular" with her husband's political base. "Donald is a fighter. He loves this country and fights for you every day," she said Tuesday at a campaign rally in the key state of Pennsylvania, her first solo act of 2020.
What would Melania do for four more years in the White House? Brower predicted that she would adopt an even lower profile. "She is a very reserved person," she pointed out. "And while 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," she predicted.
