Melania Trump, fresh from witnessing her husband emerge victorious in re-election, to date has only spoken to the nation via social media in a short statement, challenging Americans to commit responsibility to them. She vowed to “protect the heart of the republic-freedom” and requested that there be a call for unity over and above politics. This may foretell a new approach toward being First Lady in a second term by her husband.
Compared with her first term, when she largely kept out of the public light-or at least out of the public glare-especially during the early days of her husband’s presidency, Melania Trump may prove more deliberate in her approach this time.
She stayed in New York much of Trump’s first presidency with their son Barron, becoming a relatively low-profile First Lady. Her absence from public engagements has made people wonder where Melania is all this while because she was really keeping a low profile-mostly off the headlines-especially when her husband’s legal fiascos were on, and also during the electoral campaign.
Although Melania Trump is very traditionally private, whenever she appeared in the public sphere, she came forward cautiously-with carefully chosen words, to a great extent revealing her position. She attended rallies and other significant events with her husband, campaigning in support of his policies, such as law and order and opposition to political violence.
She has expressed even more intimately personal views, including her prochoice on abortion, portrayed in her memoir, a position opposed to that side of the conservative wing of the Republican Party. She also publicly supported her husband’s contentious claim that the 2020 election was stolen, and on the issue of the riots at the Capitol, she stated that she knew nothing of those events as she was busy with her duties.
Her tenure as First Lady has been surrounded by much controversy, and this includes issues of fashion and her stance on some political issues. She was known to wear during her visit to a migrant child detention center in 2018, where she donned a jacket that bore the inscription “I really don’t care, do you? ” which she later said was meant for the media.
She also expressed frustration over the family separation policy crafted by her husband over his contentious separation policies, although in private, she said she rejected them.
Even though Melania Trump was somewhat of a behind-the-scenes player, she did announce campaigns, including Be Best, which focused on the issue of children’s welfare and cyberbullying. She has also become an advocate for opioid-addicted children.
Though Melania has been quieter on the public stage than other first ladies, analysts estimate that, in a second term, she could take up many more causes and activities at specific angles and deliberately appear much more extensively on the public scene. It is, after all, an evolving role, and the former First Lady will have to take far more thoughtful decisions in Washington about how much she wants to appear publicly or what causes she will support when she might re-enter.