Melania Trump’s accomplishments? Her photo albums kept her busy, ex-friend says
‘Name one thing that she actually accomplished. Try,’ writes Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who describes how Melania Trump took up ‘albuming’ and liked filling scrapbooks ‘with photographs of herself.’
Melania Trump claimed in a farewell video Friday that her “Be Best” initiative positively benefitted the lives of millions of Americans, but some are questioning the claim.
Under her leadership, Trump said, Be Best “raised awareness” about opioid abuse, “gave voice” to foster children and expanded resources to help families protect their children from cyberbullying.
Critics, however, joke that Melania Trump’s only significant Be Best anti-cyberbullying achievement was to get President Donald Trump banned from Twitter, while Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, the first lady’s ex-best friend and former White House adviser, argues that she accomplished nothing during her husband’s presidency.
Indeed, Winston Wolkoff’s 2020 book, “Melania and Me,” and a new CNN report suggest that Melania devoted a significant amount of her time as first lady, including the final weeks of the Trump’s administration, working on her photo albums. Winston Wolkoff also wrote in the Daily Beast last week that Melania Trump took up “albuming” as first lady and liked filling scrapbooks “filled with photographs of herself.”
“Name one thing that she actually accomplished. Try,” Winston Wolkoff wrote.
CNN White House correspondent Kate Bennett said Melania Trump “hasn’t done anything of significance as the weeks of her tenure come to a closed.”
“The only thing Melania Trump has done, besides pack the White House, is work on photo albums of her time as first lady and oversee photo shoots of a rug and decorative items,” wrote Bennett, who penned a biography of the first lady.
New York Times best-selling author Kate Anderson Brower, who has penned books about first ladies, responded to reports about Melania Trump’s “albuming,” saying her tenure as first lady has been a “wasted opportunity.”
Interesting @SWWCreative “In her free time she took up ‘albuming’ and made scrapbooks full of photographs of herself.” She certainly had plenty of free time. What a wasted opportunity. No @FLOTUS has done less with their enormous platform to change lives. https://t.co/Gq5NjtQ6rF
— Kate Andersen Brower (@katebrower) January 10, 2021
Bennett also reported that Melania Trump hasn’t established an office for continuing her platform in her post-White House years, according to a source close to her activities. In an “abject abdication” of her official role — and a dereliction of her proclaimed “Be Best” civility — Melania Trump also has not contacted her successor, Jill Biden, or done anything to help with her “onboarding,” Bennett added. Michelle Obama invited Melania Trump to tea soon after Trump won election in 2016.
— Melania Trump 45 Archived (@FLOTUS45) January 11, 2021
What some might call Melania Trump’s significant accomplishment in recent weeks has been issuing a statement denouncing the violence during the pro-Trump attack on the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, but she issued the statement five days later, and her remarks were criticized for being convoluted and defensive. It didn’t acknowledge her husband’s role in firing up the mob that stormed the Capitol, and it included her regular complaints about being the victim of “salacious gossip” and “false misleading accusations” in the media.
Melania Trump likely was referring to Bennett’s report last week that she had been busy during the Capitol siege, overseeing the above-mentioned photo shoot. Bennett’s report also quoted a White House source who said that Melania Trump was “checked out” and had no interest in speaking out against the violence.
As for Melania Trump’s fondness for “albuming,” Winston Wolkoff’s book describes a January 2018 exchange she had with Melania. That’s when she learned that the first lady wasn’t busy with any White House duties, including with her “Be Best” initiative, which wouldn’t launch until May 2018. Instead, Melania Trump was working on one of her photo albums.
Winston Wolkoff, a former event planner for Vogue magazine who helped organize Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration, wrote that she texted Melania. “What are you doing?'” Winston Wolkoff asked.
“Working on pictures for albums of all of my trips and if I don’t do now, will never do,” Melania Trump texted back.
Winston Wolkoff said she stared at the word “albums” for “a good five seconds” and considered all the unopened emails and work for Melania Trump she had piled up. “So that was what she’d been up to? Albuming?” Winston Wolkoff wrote.
Melania Trump texted back: “I still don’t have a wedding album.”
After Winston Wolkoff considered that she didn’t have wedding album either, she changed the subject. Still living in New York City, Winston Wolkoff said she missed being able to drop by Melania Trump’s penthouse in the Trump Tower.
“Move to DC,” Melania Trump texted back. “It is beautiful here. Don’t miss NYC at all.”
The first lady’s view of Washington D.C. has evidently soured, and she hasn’t shown much interest in performing many duties of her official role, her “Be Best” video on Friday notwithstanding, according to Bennett.
“Her disinterest in addressing the country (on Jan. 6) was indicative of being ‘checked out,'” a White House source told Bennett. “She just isn’t in a place mentally or emotionally anymore where she wants to get involved.”
Kate Anderson Brower told Bennett: “I think she has channeled her husband’s fury and is obviously not interested in playing the traditional role of a first lady who, in times of crisis, seeks to unite and soothe the country.”
Bennett said Melania Trump has mostly been focused on packing to leave the White House, signaling “her desire to be done with Washington and the last four years of dramatic highs and lows.” Melania and Trump’s next stop is Mar-a-Lago, his resort in Palm Beach.
“(Melania Trump) is not sad to be leaving,” a White House official told Bennett.
