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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Melania Trump unlikely to move to the White House full time as first
lady: ‘This time is different’
By Betsy Klein and Kristen Holmes, CNN
Updated:
11:46 AM EST, Sat November 16, 2024
Source: CNN
Melania Trump is unlikely to move to Washington full time in her second
go-round as first lady, multiple sources told CNN, once more showing
signs of her willingness to buck tradition as she returns to her
high-profile but unelected role on the world stage.
Discussions about how and where she’ll spend her time are ongoing,
the sources said.
One of her first official decisions was with outgoing first lady Jill
Biden at the White House when President hosted the president-elect in
the Oval Office After Jill Biden extended the invitation, there was
discussion about the incoming first lady’s attendance, with members
of ’s team making clear that it was important for her to go. Sources
cited a prior scheduling conflict for Melania Trump related to her
book.
But the episode signals that Trump, who spent her first four years in
office redefining the role, is laying an early marker — and
indicating she will have even more autonomy the second time around.
“I’m not anxious because this time is different. I have much more
experience and much more knowledge. I was in the White House before.
When you go in, you know exactly what to expect,” Trump said in a
recent friendly interview with Fox News as she promoted her eponymous
memoir.
Trump is expected to spend a majority of her time over the next four
years not at the White House, but between New York City and Palm Beach,
Florida, sources familiar with the thinking told CNN. However, they
insisted she would still be present for major events and would have her
own platform and priorities as first lady.
During his first term as president, Donald Trump spent winter weekends
at Mar-a-Lago and summer weekends at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf
club, and he is expected to continue to do so. The Bidens have
similarly spent significant time at the family’s Delaware homes,
though the White House has been both Joe and Jill Biden’s primary
residence on weekdays for the past four years.
Melania Trump has developed a life and circle of friends in Florida
over the past four years and is likely to continue spend a lot of her
time there, sources said.
After the 2016 election, Trump delayed her move to Washington, opting
to move into the White House months after the inauguration as son
Barron, then 10, finished the school year. Barron Trump, now 18, is
attending New York University.
Sources suggested the incoming first lady would also spend a
significant amount of time at Trump Tower in New York to be close to
her son, Barron. She was seen in the city Sunday, returning with him
from Florida aboard the president-elect’s private plane.
“I could not say I’m an empty nester. I don’t feel that way,”
Melania Trump told Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt last month.
“It was his decision to come here, that he wants to be in New York,
study in New York, and live in his home and I respect that. … He’s
enjoying his college days. I hope he will have a great experience
because his life is very different than any other 18-, 19-year-old
child,” she said.
The prospect of a first lady declining to live full time at the White
House offers a remarkable break in precedent but should not be
surprising to those who have long observed Melania Trump.
“She has carte blanche – she can be as active in the East Wing or
as inactive as she cares to be,” said Kate Bennett, a former CNN
White House correspondent who chronicled Melania Trump’s first tenure
and the author of “Free, Melania.”
Trump telegraphed those plans in the difference between how she
participated in the 2024 election versus her husband’s first two
runs, when she was more active on the campaign trail. This time around,
she was largely absent, attending only his that he was running for
reelection; his October , where she delivered brief remarks; and his
election night party in West Palm Beach.
Her preference, sources familiar with her thinking said, is not to be
publicly involved, and there is no internal backlash among the
president-elect’s team. Sources often cite her as a constant voice in
her husband’s ear, giving him advice. One source said they heard her
give him a pep talk before a CNN town hall, while another said she
weighed in before his June debate against President Biden.
The first FLOTUS era
As first lady, Trump kept a relatively low profile but reveled in the
pomp and circumstance of the office, hosting the spouses of world
leaders and taking special care with and . She employed a skeletal East
Wing team compared with her modern predecessors, with about a dozen
staffers.
In May 2018, she unveiled a platform , titled “Be Best.” The
three-pillared program aimed to tackle children’s well-being, the
opioid crisis’ impact on kids and families, and online behavior, a
pillar seemingly at odds with the then-president’s social media
bullying.
Trump has indicated interest in reinvigorating her “Be Best”
platform and suggested she could take on “new issues.”
“Children are suffering. We need to help them and educate them,”
she told Fox News last month, providing no further details.
Bennett questioned whether Trump might streamline the platform in her
second term.
“Does she bring back ‘Be Best’ in a way that offers more clarity
to what it is? It was an incredibly broad and, at times, convoluted
platform. I would be curious to see: Is it streamlined? Does it focus
on one or two things? And then I’m curious to see whether she fleshes
out her East Wing staff to include a more robust policy agenda,” she
said.
Trump faced her share of detractors and missteps, including setting off
a public firestorm in 2018 for her stunning decision to wear a jacket
“I really don’t care. Do u?” as she made a trip to McAllen,
Texas, where she was set to tour an immigrant children’s shelter.
Her aides tried to explain away the wardrobe choice, with
communications director Stephanie Grisham saying at the time that there
“was no hidden message.” Other aides tried to say the coat was
directed at the media. Trump herself later said it was aimed at those
who criticized her. But the episode remained seared in the public
psyche.
And a former friend and senior adviser, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff,
Trump expressing frustration at being criticized for her husband’s
policy of separating families who illegally crossed the southern border
– while also needing to perform the more traditional first lady
duties.
“They say I’m complicit. I’m the same like him, I support him. I
don’t say enough, I don’t do enough where I am,” she said in the
tape recorded by Winston Wolkoff.
“I’m working … my a** off on the Christmas stuff, that you know,
who gives a f*** about the Christmas stuff and decorations? But I need
to do it, right?”
Four years later, Trump was still railing against Winston Wolkoff,
writing about the episode in detail in her book and calling her former
friend a “disgrace” on Fox News.
When her husband departed the White House, Trump exited with the lowest
favorability rating of her tenure, according to a with 47% of
respondents having an unfavorable view and 42% favorable. Her highest
favorable rating came in May 2018 at 57%.
A post-White House retreat
After leaving office, Trump divided her time between Palm Beach and New
York as her husband faced a while also mounting his third presidential
bid. Though other members of the Trump family frequently joined the
former president in court and on the campaign trail, Melania Trump
largely retreated from public life, resurfacing on social media to
promote limited edition jewelry, Christmas ornaments and non-fungible
tokens that, she said, would benefit foster children.
Trump eschewed the opportunity to use the past four years to
substantively build on her platform as first ladies such as Laura Bush
and Michelle Obama have done.
First ladies, Bennett said, “can retreat into relative privacy, but
they still maintain the platform agenda that they established. That’s
a big rift. We can respect her need for privacy, but we have to
question how deeply she did not use her global recognition.”
She added, “The missed opportunity of this period between her tenure
in the White House has been the lack of a continuing platform or policy
agenda that most first ladies build on.”
Last year, Trump surprised some by making a rare former first lady
appearance, at the . Sources close to her said her decision was made in
part to quash the media cycle she believed would occur if she did not
appear with other former first ladies at the event.
Trump spoke at a pair of political fundraisers this year for the Log
Cabin Republicans, receiving a six-figure for one of the appearances
– a highly unusual move.
In the hours after the July assassination attempt on her husband, Trump
spoke out with a lofty letter to the American people: “Ascend above
the hate, the vitriol, and the simple-minded ideas that ignite
violence. We all want a world where respect is paramount, family is
first, and love transcends. … We must insist that respect fills the
cornerstone of our relationships, again,” she .
And her memoir, released in October, made waves for a rare public break
with her husband on the issue of abortion.
“Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard.
Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it comes to this
essential right that all women possess from birth: individual freedom.
What does ‘my body, my choice’ really mean?” in a video posted to
X.
Donald Trump, she told Fox News, had known her stance on the issue
“since we met” and “wasn’t surprised at all.”
Melania Trump is, otherwise, extremely aligned politically with her
husband, sources and observers say, speaking out on issues with a
conservative lens.
“She is not someone secretly supporting the resistance, tapping SOS
on the windowpanes – that’s not her,” Bennett said.
It remains to be seen what lessons she will take from her first term as
she continues to redefine the role and make it her own.
“She still has to walk the fine line any first lady does, which is
why it’s a terrible job: You have to be smart – but not too smart.
You have to care about what you look like – but not too much. You
have to have thoughts about issues facing the world – but you also
have to have a holiday cookie recipe,” Bennett said.
She added, “It’s one of the of the most unsung, challenging roles
in a presidential administration.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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