What makes Melania Trump the first First Lady of her kind

Mint

13-05-2025

Melania Trump, First Lady of the US, began her first term in the White House with #FreeMelania trending online, as observers imagined that she was held hostage to her husband's ideology rather than a true believer. The saying also captured the peculiar job of the First Lady as a sort of compulsory plus-one to the president.
Now, months into her second term, there is a different phrase that will likely dominate her tenure: Where's Melania?
Also Read: Dani Rodrik: Mercantilism isn't always bad but Trump's trade policy is
This is progress. In not showing up as expected, Melania Trump, 55, has both freed herself and continued to transform the role. Few first ladies actually fully enjoy the unforgiving and unpaid job. Martha Washington famously described feeling 'more like a state prisoner than anything else." But unlike first ladies before her, Trump will not be bound by the confines of what has become an antiquated position.
She is leaving the 'women's work' to others, namely her husband. It is reportedly the president, not the first lady, who is choosing the gaudy style updates to the White House, from paving the Rose Garden to adding gold tchotchkes to the Oval Office mantel.
According to the New York Times, Melania Trump has spent just 14 days at the White House out of the 108 her husband has been in office. 'The corner of the residence long used by first ladies remains dark, because this first lady does not really live in Washington," the paper notes.
This should come as no surprise, as Trump said in an interview with Fox News in January that she would split her time between the White House, Palm Beach, Florida, and New York City, where her son is in college.
Also Read: Manu Joseph: A right that women don't have is the right to mediocrity
Recently at the White House, she unveiled a postage stamp honouring former first lady Barbara Bush and attended a ceremony for military mothers. Her most high-profile move has been championing the Take It Down Act, which implements strict penalties for posting explicit images of someone without their consent. (Trump launched 'Be Best' in her first term, which aimed to stop cyberbullying, an ironic choice given her husband's social media habits. That campaign will continue in her second term.)
The post of first lady has always been odd, particularly in modern times. Some first ladies have been highly educated women, successful in their own right, who have had to fold themselves into being the White House hostess. Others have had little interest in being in the national spotlight—or little aptitude for presidential Christmas decor.
Nevertheless, the job was compulsory. And unpaid. Each first lady has worked for free, heading up the East Wing of the White House—where every other person draws a salary for their work. Jill Biden was the first to have a full-time job outside of the White House, modernizing the position in a way that ideally continues beyond her term. Democratic first ladies have often been less traditional than Republican first ladies, though all typically pick platforms that have to do with children—like Michelle Obama's 'Let's Move' or Laura Bush's 'Ready to Read, Ready to Learn.'
'It's a blank slate for each person and how they want to define it is really up to them. With Mrs. Trump, you have to look at the quality, not the quantity," said Anita McBride, who was Laura Bush's chief of staff and co-author of the book Remember the First Ladies. 'She has shown us consistently that she will always chart her own course."
Indeed, she has. In her first term, that was often communicated through fashion, including a memorable $39 jacket she wore emblazoned with the words, 'I really don't care, do u?"
Also Read: The page didn't turn but American women aren't going back
This time around, she sent an early signal in her official White House portrait, for which she wore a dark suit, indicating that she is approaching her role as a businesswoman intent on cashing in. In this way, she seems like her husband, profiting off of the White House even as she's hardly there. Amazon.com agreed to produce a documentary about her (limited) time in the East Wing, a deal reportedly worth $40 million. And on the eve of her husband's inauguration, she launched her very own cryptocurrency, netting millions, following in his footsteps.
This level of grift is an unfortunate departure from other first ladies, who often donated the proceeds of whatever other work they did, such as writing books.
In a 2020 survey of historians and scholars, Melania Trump ranked as the least popular first lady and topped the list of modern first ladies who could have done more with the role. This time, she will do much less and get paid much more, continuing the evolution of the position for better or for worse. ©Bloomberg
The author is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.