Melania Trump clearly wants to change the narrative around her return to the White House. For months, unnamed insiders have been telling the press that she would be a “part-time First Lady”.
“She’ll do the big events. But no ladies’ tea and no — or very few — interviews,” a source told The New York Post in November, adding that she would be “a part time first lady — while being a full-time mother and wife.”
CNN reported that Melania was “unlikely” to live in Washington DC full time, instead hopping between Palm Beach and New York, where her and Donald Trump’s 18-year-old son Barron attends New York University, and treating the White House like a third home.
Yet in an interview with Fox News last week, the former Playboy model made it clear that she would be settling into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. “I already packed, I already selected the furniture that needs to go in,” she told Fox anchor Ainsley Earhardt. “I will be in the White House and when I need to be in New York, I’ll be in New York and when I need to be in Palm Beach, I’ll be in Palm Beach. My first priority is to be a mom, to be a first lady, to be a wife, and once we are in on January 20th, you serve the country.”
There’s good reason for this, too. Melania has announced a documentary with Amazon Prime that will give an “unprecedented behind-the-scenes look” at her life. Shooting has already begun, and Melania told Fox that viewers will see the process of “moving into the White House – what it takes to make the residence your home.”
In her memoir, Melania wrote that redecorating the White House’s private residence back in 2016 was no small task, “as the existing style was outdated and not to my taste”. She has said that the dozen or so rooms will be restored to how the Trumps left them in 2020, with “a little bit of changes.” However, she spent most of her time at Trump Towers in New York, where Barron attended school.
Melania says the documentary was her brainchild. “My fans and people would love to hear more from me, so I had an idea to make a movie,” she told Fox. She then instructed her agent to “go out and make a deal for me”. Make a deal they did: Amazon has reportedly paid a $40 million licensing fee for the pleasure of producing the documentary, which will be directed by Brett Ratner, though it is unclear how much of this the Trumps will get.
It will be Ratner’s first project since he was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women at the height of the #MeToo movement (his lawyers denied the allegations). Ratner directed X-Men: The Last Stand and the Rush Hour movies, but his Hollywood career ground to a halt in 2017.
“My life is incredible,” Melania told Fox, so viewers can expect a show.
The Flotus ostensibly has a carte blanche to do as she pleases — it is not a constitutionally defined role, but many have chosen to follow a playbook and have causes they invest time in. Nancy Reagan set up the Just Say No to drugs campaign, while Michelle Obama set up the Let’s Move! campaign to tackle childhood obesity.
Melania has said that she will renew and expand her Be Best initiative. It’s a broad brush campaign focused on child welfare, from combating cyberbullying and opioid abuse to mental health.
Commentators noted the irony of Melania describing social media as “destructive and harmful” while married to one of the world’s most notorious cyberbullies. In 2020, CNN reported that the Be Best campaign would mark its second anniversary with “few of the objectives announced at the first anniversary accomplished”.
“In the first administration I didn’t have much support from anyone, I invited all of the streaming platforms to the White House, I had the round table, and I didn’t have much support from them,” she told Fox.
Yet nowadays, the First Lady is not afraid to distance herself from her husband. In her memoir she passionately defended abortion rights and revealed she has always been pro-choice.
"Maybe people see me as just a wife of the president," she told Fox. “I have my own thoughts, I have my own yes and no. I don’t always agree with what my husband is saying or doing and that’s okay. I give him my advice and sometimes he listens, sometimes he doesn’t, and that’s okay.”
Melania appears keen to impress that she will take on a more hands-on role than last time, with a focus on serving the country. “I think it will be an exciting four years, we have a lot to do, and put the country back in shape,” she said last week.
Her first move? Launching a multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency “meme coin” called $MELANIA. A noble cause.
