6 Things to Know About Melania Trump
Throughout presidential campaign, Donald Trump's wife Melania kept out of spotlight. With the exception of a few high-profile events - the debates, the convention - she preferred to stay off the trail, instead caring for their son Barron at home in New York.
Now that Trump has taken office, not much has changed. Melania has yet to embrace the traditional duties of First Lady, a mindset that is exemplified by her decision to remain in New York while Barron finishes out the school year.
Her reclusive behavior has prompted rumors that she is deeply unhappy in her role, but without any evidence to that effect, it's hard to speculate whether this is something of a prolonged adjustment period, or what we can expect for the next four years.
That said, here's what we do know about our first lady.
She's started staffing up.
While Melania has yet to make the move to D.C., she does have a team working in the East Wing. While some positions remain unmanned, initial key hires include her good friend-turned-senior adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who notably planned the Met Gala for many years, designer Tham Kannalikham to serve as White House Decorator, and Niceta Lloyd, known as Rickie, as White House social secretary.
Cyber Bullying will be her cause.
A 1999 interview implies that Melania envisions the role of First Lady to be largely ceremonial. ''I would be very traditional. Like Betty Ford or Jackie Kennedy. I would support him," she told the New York Times. But toward the end of the election cycle, Melania shared that she planned to make cyber bullying one of her "main focuses."
"As adults, many of us are able to handle mean words, even lies. Children and teenagers can be fragile. They are hurt when they are made fun of, or made to feel less in looks or intelligence. This makes their life hard and can force them to hide and retreat. Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough, especially to children and teenagers. It is never okay when a 12-year-old girl or boy is mocked, bullied or attacked. It is terrible when that happens on the playground, and it is absolutely unacceptable when it's done by someone with no name hiding on the Internet," she said in a speech in early November. It's an interesting cause to champion if not an ironic one, given her husband's Twitter tendencies; however, she has yet to act on the effort in any meaningful way so far.
Her team affirms she'll fully embrace the first lady role - when she's ready.
"It has only been a short time since the inauguration, and the First Lady is going to go about her role in a pragmatic and thoughtful way that is unique and authentic to her," Wolkoff told the New York Times in early February.
"Everybody has expectations of what they think it should be," Anita McBride, who was Laura Bush's chief of staff, told The Cut, "but the reality is it's really for the first lady to determine how she can fulfill the role that's true to her."
She's an immigrant.
Born in part of the former Yugoslavia that later became Slovenia, Melania will be only the second immigrant First Lady in our country's history. The first was John Quincy Adams's wife, Louisa Adams, who grew up in London. She will also be the first First Lady to have been born in a communist state and she speaks four languages fluently.
She's a former model.
Melania got her start in the fashion world early, appearing in her first commercial at 16. Just two years later, she was signed by an agency in Milan and began to travel for photo shoots throughout Europe. Over the course of her career, she's been on the cover of numerous magazines including Allure, Vogue, and GQ, and appeared in the 2000 Swimsuit Issue of Sports Illustrated. In fact, some of her risqué spreads were even used as anti-Trump ads during the campaign, a strategy criticized by many women as anti-feminist. Melania's initial entry into the American modeling world also proved controversial in this race - she reportedly worked illegally for several weeks in the States before receiving the appropriate permits.
Motherhood is important to Melania.
As mentioned above, Melania is hardly a typical modern political spouse, preferring life at home with Barron. "I don't have a nanny. I have a chef, and I have my assistant, and that's it. I do it myself," she told Harpers Bazaar. "You know, those hours with your child are really important ones, even if it's just the two of you, being quiet in the car together."
She didn't come out of the campaign unscathed.
Trump is unprecedented in the number of scandals he has overcome to win the presidency, several of which have affected Melania. Not only was it discovered that she plagiarized her Republican National Convention speech from First Lady Michelle Obama - and then quoted Trump's ex-wife Marla Maples at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania - but she was also forced to defend her husband after numerous women accused him of sexual harassment.
She and Donald don't agree on everything.
While she preferred to keep her political views to herself during the campaign, Melania maintains that she and her husband don't see eye to eye on everything. "I don't agree with everything that he says but you know, that is normal," she told CNN. "I'm my own person, I tell him what I think. I'm standing very strong on the ground on my two feet and I'm my own person. And I think that's very important in the relationship."
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