Melania Trump found a smile and it suits Ukraine

Long very discreet, Melania Trump is increasingly showing her husband. It seems more relaxed – to the point of having a political influence on the president.

Natasha Hähni, Fabian Hock

This is a question that has become familiar for several years: “Where’s Melania?”

In any case, not at the White House. The First Lady will have spent less than two weeks there in the first 108 days of her husband’s second term. To this overwhelming statistic have been added several videos of Melania and Donald Trump, in which she pushes her hand or looks at him with contempt, fueling speculation on the growing distance within the presidential couple.

But in recent weeks, the situation seems to have changed. During her public appearances, Melania appears more relaxed. During a commemorative ceremony for soldiers’ families on Memorial Day day, she smiled many times and ostensibly held Donald Trump’s hand. Scenes that we had not seen for a long time.

“She seems more sure of her, as if she now felt much more comfortable in her role as First Lady,” explains Jossette Rivera, longtime journalist and Lifestyle expert based in Miami, Florida.

During her husband’s first term, Melania regularly made the headlines – most of the time, unwittingly. To cite only one example, when she posted himself with the now famous military jacket decorated with the inscription “I really don’t care.” And you?” During a visit to an immigrant children’s home.

“Now it feels like it is she who holds the reins of her image,” adds Jossette Rivera.

The fashion world also reacts. The designers who had distanced themselves from Melania Trump during her first mandate now seem to accept it again. Fashion portals praise his new outfits, calling them “discreetly sovereign”.

The old model also went to the economy offensive. An agreement of $ 40 million with Amazon for an exclusive documentary on his life as well as his book, published this year, mark a change of strategy: the First Lady no longer wants to be the subject of media interpretations, but to determine the way in which the public perceives it.

«L’agent Melania Trumpenko»

In private, Melania also seems to feel more comfortable in her role alongside the president. She could have played a special role in her husband’s flip-flop on Ukraine. Last week, the president announced that the United States would provide Ukraine with Defense Missiles Patriot. Admittedly, it is the European partners of NATO who will have to pay. But for Donald Trump, who has long defended the cause of Vladimir Putin, these are completely new words.

During a common appearance with the secretary general of NATO Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, the American president let escape, almost by the way, a surprising remark. He first turned out on his telephone conversations with Vladimir Putin, who have always been “very pleasant”.

He then suggested that it was Melania who brought him back to reality. After a phone with the Russian president, he would have told the First Lady that he had a wonderful conversation with Vladimir Putin.

In Ukraine, Melania has since been celebrated for her intervention as “Agent Melania Trumpenko”.

Already in 2022, Melania stood out when she had declared her sympathy for Ukraine. And it is not excluded either that she has a real influence. This is not the first time that a member of the Trump family has been suspected of having pushed the US head of state to make a large -scale military decision. In 2017, the United States pulled 59 cruise missiles on Syria in retaliation for a toxic gas attack by Dictator Assad against the Syrian population.

To justify this surprise attack, Trump had then declared that “even beautiful babies” had been murdered during the toxic gas attack. “No child of God should never undergo such horror.”

Trump’s son Eric, Eric, said shortly after in an interview that his sister Ivanka, herself a mother of three, had played an active role in this surprising decision. The White House then officially confirmed this information.

It is however difficult to assess the real influence that Melania exerts on his Donald. She remains an enigmatic character. His longtime spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, has one day called him “the most secret first lady in history”.

Translated and adapted from German by Léa Krejci