Melania Trump (53) was the chief guest last weekend at a meeting of the Log Cabin Republicans, a group of LGBTQ people in the Republican Party. With the event they raise money for Trump’s election campaign. To see and hear Melania, attendees paid at least $10,000.
In the run-up to the evening, Melania told the Fox News website that she finds the work of LGBTQ conservatives ‘important’. “We must unite in our efforts to create a society where equality is the daily experience of every American.”
Support for an LGBTQ group is considered surprising in a party in which some politicians still argue against gay marriage. But it is especially special that Melania Trump is participating in a campaign rally at all. She has hardly been seen since her husband announced at the end of 2022 that he is running for the American presidency again. She wasn’t even there when he celebrated winning the primaries, at the Florida resort where he lives with Melania.
Unusual
Her absence is unusual in the US, where politicians’ partners often appear in campaigns. It is so noticeable that last year someone flew a plane with a banner over a stadium in Iowa when Trump was in the stands. “Where is Melania?” it read. Flyers with her photo appeared at campaign rallies, designed as a poster with information about a missing person. “Have you seen this woman?”
Melania Trump did give a speech in small company at a naturalization ceremony in Washington. The former First Lady was born and raised in Slovenia and is also a naturalized American citizen. That includes “actively participating in the democratic process,” she told the new Americans in December, “and safeguarding our freedom.”
She briefly appeared in public again when Donald Trump himself cast his vote in the Florida primaries last month. When she attended a vigil for a murdered police officer with her husband shortly afterwards, she hinted at more appearances. “Stay tuned,” she said to a reporter who asked. In other words: just keep an eye on it.
On the background
“She will be on the road a lot,” Trump predicted in February of a more active role. “Not because she likes it, but because she appreciates the result. She really wants to see this country succeed.” He described his wife as someone who values her privacy and does not like the spotlight. She also stayed in the background in Trump’s previous campaigns.
It is unclear how often Melania will actually go on campaign after this weekend’s first performance. CNN reports that even the Republican Party does not know whether she wants to speak at the party conference where her husband will officially become a presidential candidate in the summer. She did so in 2016, but it was not a success. She became controversial because parts of her speech appeared to be copied from her predecessor Michelle Obama.
Melania Trump is particularly focused on her son Barron. “Her life revolves around that boy,” her husband said. As a toddler, Barron spoke English with a Slovenian accent because he spent most of his time with her. Now he is working on his final exams; After the summer he will go to college. Mother Melania has spent a lot of time looking for further education. Moreover, her own mother recently passed away.
Restraint
Melania Trump’s reticence is also a tactic, according to a former friend and advisor, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff. “We discussed how her deliberate lack of communication with the media would leave everyone in the dark, which ultimately perpetuates the narrative that she is mysterious and an enigma,” she told The Washington Post.
Donald Trump would certainly attach great importance to the opinion of his silent wife, according to one of his first confidantes in politics, Kellyanne Conway. “He listens to many of us, but he is afraid of only one person, and that is Melania Trump,” Conway said in a congressional hearing.
Then he could get the wind from him in the coming weeks, when he has to report to court in New York almost every day due to a sex scandal and covered-up payments. On the first days of the hearing, Melania did not appear there either to support her husband in the suspects’ bench. The judge did mention her name as a potential witness.
‘Donald’s problem’
But she doesn’t feel like playing a role in it. The case revolves around a wild night her husband allegedly had with porn star Stormy Daniels, when she had just become a mother to Barron. She finds the criminal case ‘a shame’ in an election year, according to an anonymous source The New York Times, but previously also described the Stormy issue as ‘Donald’s problem’. “He caused this mess himself, so he can fix it,” she reportedly told her former spokesperson Stephanie Grisham.
After reports of hush money for the porn star emerged, she canceled a trip to Switzerland with President Trump, left the White House and retreated to Florida. “I don’t want to be like Hillary Clinton, you know what I mean?” Grisham quotes a comment from Melania Trump in her memoir. Hillary Clinton appeared hand in hand with Bill Clinton after it emerged that as president he had an affair with a White House intern.
Melania Trump mainly wants to be left alone. As first lady, according to her staff, she did not feel like doing many of the ceremonial appearances that are customary in that role, and she also thought it was simply unnecessary to accompany her husband everywhere. “Melania said: I don’t have to stand next to Donald like Jill Biden. It’s like she’s holding Joe Biden up,” Grisham told CNN.
