With former President Donald Trump’s re-election, attention is being paid to whether First Lady Melania Trump, who has returned to the White House, will be more active than before.
When First Lady Melania Trump posted on social media on the 6th, the day after the 47th presidential election in which former President Trump won, there were predictions that she would take a different approach than during Trump’s first term.
On her X (formerly Twitter) account, First Lady Melania Trump wrote, “The vast majority of Americans have entrusted us with this important responsibility,” and “We will defend the freedoms that are the heart of our republic. I look forward to our citizens once again transcending ideology and joining in a commitment to each other for individual freedom, economic prosperity, and security.”
The message was short, but the BBC interpreted it on the 9th as suggesting that he would change the role of the first lady during his second term.
During Trump’s first term, Melania Trump was different from other first ladies in that she kept her mouth shut and rarely appeared in public, not only during the campaign period but also after entering the White House. This earned her the nickname of “the reclusive first lady.”
Even after former President Trump took office, she did not enter the White House right away but stayed in New York to educate her son. Melania Trump has also rarely appeared during this presidential campaign. At the Republican National Convention in July, Melania Trump did not give a separate stage speech, breaking the tradition of having the spouse of a presidential candidate join her on stage to speak. However, when she had to speak publicly, she was evaluated to have given hints about her views with carefully chosen words.
At a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York last month, Melania Trump described New York as a “great metropolis” and said, “This city has produced the world’s bravest leaders for generations, and their achievements have changed the course of the world.”
After the first assassination attempt on her husband in July, she called the perpetrator a “monster” and called for unity, and in a later interview with Fox News she criticized “opposition party and mainstream media leaders for fanning the flames of this toxic atmosphere.”
In her recently published memoir, Melania Trump said, “I have a strong sense of duty to use my position as First Lady for good.” In addition, the BBC reported that in a 1999 interview, her then-boyfriend, former President Trump, said that if he were to run for president, he would choose Jacqueline Kennedy and Betty Ford as role models, saying that they were “very traditional.”
Kennedy was a fashion icon, and Ford was considered a pioneer in advocating abortion rights and women’s rights. It is still unclear how Melania will perform her role as the second First Lady and whether she will enter the White House at the same time as President-elect Trump. However, her past and recent statements suggest that she will take a more active approach.
Tammy Vigil, an associate professor at Boston University who wrote a book about Melania and Michelle Obama, said that Melania “is a rare case among modern first ladies,” saying, “She does things the way she wants to do them, not the way she has to. And yet she meets basic expectations.”
Professor Vigil said the role of the first lady has changed over the years and predicted that Melania will “choose how much she wants to be in the public eye.”