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She began her first year in New York a few hours from the White House, rarely appearing in public and gathering a fledgling staff, but she had moved in early 2018. to, built her team with a dozen members and set his sights on a series of firsts: first state dinner, first official political initiative, first solo trip abroad. As the year began to unfold, it seemed at last that the first lady would really become a first lady.
And the carpet escaped him. Twelve days after the start of the year, the story of Stormy Daniels broke out and Trump was screened into an outrageous, salacious drama and tabloid style drama. Before she could close the world and retreat, she was now the most famous woman. in the world; hiding was not an option.
As such, 2018 would become the year when Melania Trump had to find out how to perform her duties publicly as first lady, while balancing a marriage under the microscope, in the not so private.
At the beginning of the year emotionally and sometimes physically distanced from President Donald Trump, Trump was entertained with public sympathy. Much of the country was sincerely sorry for her after the news of Daniels' story. She finally made progress, posting an independent line of fire, restoring her wing of the White House and building what would become a platform to help the children.
She learned to communicate through statements, tweets, and non-verbal cues, without the need for West Wing agreement, whether her philosophies were related to her husband's or not, which was often not the case.
Donald Trump is a prolific caller; Melania Trump has decided to tackle online bullying.
The administration of Donald Trump has imposed a zero tolerance policy by separating families from illegal immigrants; Melania Trump flew up to the border twice, to see for herself how it could affect a process change.
Donald Trump criticized LeBron James' intellect in a tweet; Melania Trump, through her spokesperson, congratulated James for his charitable work.
Donald Trump insisted on choosing the channels to watch on Air Force One; Melania Trump, still through the intermediary of her spokesperson, looks at "any channel she wants, by the way".
For most of 2018, the division between the first couple and the first couple had become a new whim of the Trump presidency to which we all got used. the first lady took advantage of his solo act. His popularity in polls was by far the highest member of the Trump family, of all members of the Trump administration, really. His decisions and actions were sometimes emboldened and had positive results, but some events were missing dramatically (this jacket, for example).
However, in the last weeks of 2018, Trump was different, all the more so as she found a more solid foundation, becoming more and more her role. She has embraced a more forward-looking partnership with the President, not just physically – there is a significantly more "natural" hands holding and love between the last couple – but intellectually and politically. It's a move that gave Trump more voices and more public personality, and shattered the mystery of who she really is. But as the end of the year approaches, the first lady may get closer to her husband, but her popularity seems to be suffering.
A Study on Stoicism
If the country wondered what Melania Trump felt after the news came out, her husband would have been unfaithful to adult movie star Stormy Daniels , an assertion that he repeatedly denied – only a few months after giving birth to the only child of the couple – it was enough for them to read his silence and his independence.
On January 30, two weeks after Daniels became famous, Trump escaped a mundane tradition: instead of arriving with the president in his procession of the White House procession to the United States Capitol for her speech on the state of the Union, she took a separate car, leaving her husband alone. It was a shocking break with the norm, and the first lady had begun to witness the independence of the country – she understood very well that she was reluctant to feign the smile and behavior of political spouses before she had scandal wreak havoc.
Instead, she would try to avoid it altogether, said her spokeswoman to CNN at the time when Trump had taken the separate cortege to have more time with her. special guests from State of the Union.
By the time the first lady was introduced before the president's speech, all eyes were on her when she arrived in the tribune, dressed in a white pantsuit, similar to that advocated by Hillary Clinton during the presidential campaign. And notable, too, for the signal of the suffragettes, who wore white. This would be the first time in 2018, although it would certainly not be the last, that some would wonder if the first lady of the United States "followed" the President of the United States.
She canceled it a few days ago. trip to Davos, Switzerland, at the last minute she planned to accompany Trump to the World Economic Forum. Stephanie Grisham, the director of communications for the first woman, spoke of planning and logistics issues, but Trump was still shocked by the news cycles swamped by Stormy Daniels' stories and the implications of alleged gains and private maneuvers. .
In January 22 days before their departure, the couple's 13th wedding anniversary went unnoticed by social media. Questions about how they spent the day or the party were unanswered by the communications offices of the East Wing and the West Wing.
Perhaps the most telling of the beginning of the year is that Trump has scored the past year. A year to the day after being named first lady, Trump posted on her social media accounts a photo of her indented, not with the president on the day of the investiture, but with a military escort anonymous, his arm tied around his smile and the pinned smile. .
"This year has been rich in wonderful moments, I have enjoyed the people I have had the chance to meet in our great country and in the world!" she subtitled the picture without mentioning her husband.
Tragedies would tie the first couple, or at least bring them back to each other – the shooting of a school in Parkland, Florida, for example. victims and first responders. Melania Trump has long been regarded as the most compassionate member of the first couple and, with her, the president adds a much needed sweetness to her personality.
Coping with Charges Against Her Husband
19659002] However, Trump does not speak until the end of February. He spends a few minutes on a podium at the White House in front of the governors' wives at a luncheon. Six weeks after the beginning of Stormy Daniels' story, the audience would hear his voice.
Still, if the month of January had been stormy, March would bring another torrent of sordid titles, now owned by Karen McDougal, whose accusations of adulterous affair with Donald Trump were much more personal and detailed. McDougal told his story to Anderson Cooper, explaining how she had visited Melania's home, claiming that she and Trump had told each other that they loved each other and how much she had been emotionally attached to Melania's husband.
"What can you say except that I'm sorry?" She told Cooper in a long television interview, apologizing to Melania Trump for this alleged affair, which the president denied. "I'm sorry, I would not want it done to me."
Trump responded by not answering – by keeping quiet on the radio, refusing to appear next to her husband before the departure of the two men for a trip scheduled to Mar-a-Lago for the spring break. Avoiding at the last moment the traditional walk across the South Lawn to Marine One, the presidential helicopter that typically transports them to their plane at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, Trump again called for a separate procession, arriving alone and boarding Air Force One in front of her husband and out of sight of the press.
It was the day after the interview of McDougal.
A leap forward
In April, Melania Trump found herself faced with two choices: staying under the radar and continuing with her famous private adventure now, or emerge, boldly, to continue his homework.
She chose the latter.
In April, the Trumps hosted in Paris the French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte, on the occasion of the first state visit of the Trump government. Of course, this was the first state dinner, something that Trump had been planning for weeks, overseeing every detail of the evening, from the seat covers (cream) to the menu (rack of lamb) .
It was "a smaller and more elegant event," Grisham told CNN, with about 100 guests and everything Melania Trump wanted for her first big White House concert. "[The first lady] has a background in design, which has played a major role in decorating the entire state … She has been very focused on the customer experience and wants to allow them to really enjoy and to remember the occasion. "
The details were executed to perfection, from the Chanel Haute Couture silver sequined dress that she wore in tribute to the French fashion to the superb photo album of the two days of events that Trump had organized for the Macrons on their departure, accompanied by a silver bowl Tiffany & Co. to commemorate the occasion.
After all, it was his moment; The one she had asked for at the arrival of the Macrons, not with a welcome address or a hug and a handshake, but rather with a white hat, a large hat with a large brim of her personal designer, tailor-made for her Michael Kors white suit. With the hat, Trump would tell the world that the day was going to be that of her husband and not her husband – and each title followed her example, mentioning the choice of helmets worn by Trump, which indicated that she might have be finished playing the role of wife behind the scenes. .
The popularity of Melania Trump peaked in early May of this year at 57% after state dinner, according to a CNN poll, a public release for the extremely private first lady. It was also after Trump's solo trip to Houston, Texas, to attend the funeral of former First Lady Barbara Bush, where she posed, smiling, for a photo with former presidents and first ladies, many of whom have an icy relationship with her husband.
"I am well aware of the fact that people are skeptical about my discussion on this topic," Trump said at an event held in the spring. "I have been criticized for being committed to solving this problem and I know it will continue, but that will not prevent me from doing what I know to be right."
Still, the launch of Be Best was virtually inextricably hampered by what came next for Trump in an already difficult year.
A Health Alert
In May, she would also be hospitalized at the Walter Reed Military Medical Center for a kidney procedure, which would keep her out of the public eye for several weeks and bring them people to wonder if his health was stable.
His office, as usual, was tight-lipped, revealing only a few details and intensely watching his schedule. Trump spent almost a week in the hospital following what the White House had called "an embolization procedure to treat benign kidney disease".
It was only several weeks after the procedure, when rumor was that the first lady was in a more serious condition or had been hospitalized with something other than what her office had said , that President Trump left the gravity of the situation on the fly. his stay at the hospital.
"She had a big surgery," Trump told the media as he made his way to the G7 summit, saying the first lady had wanted to join him, but doctors would not allow him to travel for 30 days. "It was an operation of almost four hours, and she is doing very well."
A violent fall
If the renal procedure defined its spring, as are the scandals its winter, it was a summer of independence and recovery before his foot restores with more ferocity in the fall.
October will see Trump's first international solo trip to Africa. Striker at a program that included a four-country visit in five days, Trump has partnered with USAID to educate children in the region and to programs put in place by the United States to help several African countries.
Trump was well received, for the most part. She had a sartorial failure in Kenya, wearing a white marrow helmet during a safari, an unintended sign of the colonial era of that region, a dark spot in the collective history of Kenya. She was attacked by the media. And although it's fashionable enough to directly look at a Vogue photo shoot in her cream pantsuit and Chanel hat, all worn to see the Pyramids and the Sphinx in Egypt, she's been ridiculed for looking much like a suit. .
"You know what, we just finished an amazing trip, we went to Ghana, we went to Malawi, we went to Kenya, now we are in Egypt, I want to talk about my trip and not about this. I'm wearing it, "Trump caught the press's attention during an impromptu question and answer session, her first on record since she became first lady. "It's very important, what I do, what we do with USAID, my initiatives, and I'd like people to focus on what I'm doing, not on what I'm doing. door, "she said.
The silk was all the more intense. Considering another fashionable goof a few months ago, when she wore a $ 35 Zara jacket with the words "I'm not going to do it, do you want to?" She flaunts her government jet while visiting immigrant families in Texas, in the midst of a border crisis, when the news was filled with stories that children had been separated from their parents.
The border issue was something that Trump would later say she was "blind," and something she told her husband that he had to do something to stop it. But the jacket usurped the good that she had wanted to make by going herself to the border, the first member of the Trump family to have done it – this would become the calling card of her critics, a moment of pure deafness that Trump was going to have later I wanted to send a message to the disruptive media.
The fallout from the jacket, although it was intense, was not the only thing that worried Trump, but she continued with Be Best, visiting hospitals and children's schools, holding discussions about everything, from neonatal abstinence syndrome to kindness on social networks.
Speaking
As we approached the end of the year, Trump 's strength and influence – grew.
After the uproar between his East Wing staff members and Mira Ricardel, President Trump's top national security advisor, following the trip to Africa on the details surrounding the space reserved for travel and retention of assets, the first lady did not bite his tongue.
After trying to tell her husband that she felt that Ricardel was working against his staff, but to no avail, Trump took things into his hands, very public.
"It's the position of the office of the first lady that (Ricardel) no longer deserves the honor of serving in the White House," said Grisham in a statement issued in November, when the quarrel had reached to an untenable position.
Even though it is not unusual that a first lady is interfering with staffing issues in the West Wing – what Nancy Reagan and Hillary Clinton have both done in camera during their tenure – it was historic for a first lady to phone so openly for the dismissal of a member of the president's administration. A few days later, Ricardel was fired from the White House.
Those who know her and who work for her say that one of Trump's great strengths is her loyalty and her commitment to doing what she thinks is best for her team. But the outward optics of his record and the results obtained indicated that this first lady was not completely devoid of influence on her husband; In fact, she exerted a lot of influence.
Trump had left a glimpse of part of her wedding during an interview with ABC News in October, stealthily suggesting that she was behind the departure of the wing aides. West. [19659002] "I give him my opinion and my honest opinions, then he does what he wants to do," said Trump.
When asked what her husband had done when she had suggested not trusting some staff members, the first lady replied, "Well, some people, they do not work there anymore. -low".
It is during this same interview that Trump also revealed that she was not only protecting her husband, she often thought of him as well.
Regarding immigration, Trump said, "I believe in the policies developed by my husband, because I think we must be very vigilant, come to the country."
And she also revealed her personal difficulties, perhaps not as much as she aroused as much sympathy as she would have anticipated.
"I could say I'm the most intimidated person in the world," said Trump.
"Are you really the most broken person in the world?" Tom Llamas of ABC News asked in return.
"One of them, if you really see what people are saying about me," Trump said. was an echo of his thoughts on another hot topic of the year: the #MeToo Movement
At the height of the debate over the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, currently in the Supreme Court, Trump said the accusers had to submit evidence of their claims.
"If you accuse (someone of) something, show the evidence," Trump said at an impromptu press conference in Africa. "I support women and they need to be heard … We need to support them, as well as men and not just women."
Although it is not entirely unexpected, of course, that the political beliefs of the first lady correspond more closely to those of the president than it was thought to be at the time. origin, the bubble of "what if?"
"I stand beside women, but we have to show evidence.You can not just tell someone:" I've been sexually assaulted "or", "You're me. you did that, "because sometimes the media go too far, and the way they tell stories, that's not true, that's wrong," she said at from the same conference with journalists in Africa.
More recently, in an interview with Fox News in December, Trump again drew attention for his remarks on the hardest part of his job as first lady. Choosing to respond in a way that focused only on her personal turmoil, Trump expressed it in a way that was very similar to her, both in her husband's tone and tone.
"I would say opportunists who use my name or surname to make themselves known, from comics to journalists to performers, writers," she said.
"Does it hurt?" Asked Sean Hannity, of Fox News, who conducted the interview during Trump's visit to the crew aboard the USS George HW Buisson . "It does not hurt, the problem is that they write the story and that is not correct."
The Fallout and the Future
The audience reacts to the new vocal mood of the first lady, and they do not like it as much as the quieter version. In a December poll by CNN, Trump's favorable rating was just 43 percent, up from 54 percent two months earlier, a surprising double-digit decline.
As Kate Andersen Brower, author and contributor to CNN, says, Trump's more outspoken side has clearly influenced his popularity.
"I think Trump's supporters are passionate defenders of the first lady and I think most people, including Democrats, want to like him," said Brower, author of "First Women: The First Ladies The problem arises when it addresses extremely charged political issues like the Me Too movement or when it clearly explains that it influences her husband's decisions about It is no coincidence that the CNN poll revealed that his approval rate had dropped.Ricardel was fired.No other modern First Lady has done this as publicly. "
Not that Trump is particularly interested in the number of polls, or anything that the public could speculate, most of them seem hollow. the first lady does not work with children. Grisham has long claimed that Trump is moving forward, not backwards, despite negative discussions, determined to do what is due to him, without any connection to the perception or standards expected. (Still similar to the non-traditional approach her husband adopted in the West Wing.)
Another remarkable trait of the first lady is her nonchalant behavior under the indiscreet eye of an audience who wants to know more about her. This is a kind of protective armor that has served him well in some scenarios, such as the Daniels and McDougal scandals, and has prevented him from revealing any personal weakness.
"Mrs. Trump is a strong, independent woman who plays in her own way as a first lady," Grisham said of her boss.
As the dawn of 2019 turns to her, Trump's attention is squarely focused on the positives of becoming a first lady who finds her voice and mission, not chess and weaknesses of 2018. Her relationship with her husband seems stronger than ever. When asked recently if she likes him, Trump smiled at his mysterious smile and replied, "Yes, we're fine." Yes. "
And the scandals that began his year remained in his rear-view mirror.
"I am a mother and a first lady, I have much more important things to think and do."
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