The enigmatic Melania Trump, discreet but influential First Lady
For a long time, Melania Trump seemed reluctant to fully enjoy her role of "First Lady". Four years after arriving at the White House, the former Slovenian model remains parsimonious in her interventions, but she has stepped up to her husband whenever he needed her.
The substance of the thought of Donald Trump's third wife, naturalized American in 2006, has always been the subject of speculation: does she share the ideas of her husband? Is she happy in her marriage and her role as First Lady? "Free Melania" signs or hashtags even popped up a few years ago during demonstrations or on social networks.
Mrs. Trump, 50, haughty bearing and icy gaze, seems not to care.
The First Lady is "much more powerful and influential with her husband" than observers suspect, affirmed the journalist of CNN Kate Bennett in a book published last year, by portraying a strong and independent woman.
American dream
Born Melania Knauss in Slovenia, she left her country for Milan and Paris in the hope of breaking through as a model. His career brought him to the United States in 1996; she met Mr. Trump two years later and married him in 2005. Together they have a boy, Barron, 14 years old today.
Her American adventure, which took her to the most famous presidential residence in the world, allowed her to lead the life of a jet-setter, between the gilding of the Trump Tower in New York, with breathtaking views of Central Park, and the imposing residences of her husband in Florida.
Initially, Melania Trump was not keen on the idea of a Trump presidency, the real estate mogul told the Washington Post: "She said: + we have such a good life. Why do you want to do it that? + ".
She ultimately became the first wife of an American president to be born outside the United States in nearly two centuries.
"Hidden message"
Those who follow her have often been reduced to having to interpret a word, a gesture or ... a garment. Like when in 2018, during a visit to migrant children at the border with Mexico, she wore a jacket with the following message: "I really don't care, do u?" (I don't care, do you?).
Was she targeting the audience? Her husband ? Her spokesperson assured that "there was no hidden message", but Melania Trump later said the opposite.
"I put on the jacket (...) for the left-wing media that criticize me, and I want to show them that I don't care. (That) it won't prevent me from doing what I think is right" , she explained, impassive, to the ABC channel.
It must be said that almost every time she intervened in public, the backlash was not far.
His speech at the Republican convention in 2016 was ridiculed, and for good reason: entire passages were taken from a speech by former First Lady Michelle Obama.
The campaign against harassment "Be Best" - a slogan with rough grammar - which she launched has also met with jeers, many pointing to the irony that she has chosen this cause when her husband is known to water his opponents. inglorious adjectives.
"She's there"
Two years ago, she explained that the most difficult to manage, in her new role, were "the opportunists who use my first or last name to advance (their interests), from comedians to journalists or book authors. ".
"It doesn't hurt me", she had maintained, but "the problem is that they write the story and that it is not correct".
During her husband's re-election campaign, Melania Trump, who like him was infected with the coronavirus, was rare.
But she held her first meeting, solo, a week before the November 3 election, and has yet to speak this weekend.
"I do not always agree with the way he says it," said the First Lady on Tuesday to the laughter of the assembly. But "Donald is a fighter. He loves this country and he fights for you every day," she added.
Thursday, a rare occurrence, Melania was alongside her husband in Florida. “A voice for President Trump is a voice for a better America,” she said, sunglasses on.
"Whenever he needs her for a big show of support, she's there," said Katherine Jellison, professor of history at Ohio University.
