Melania Trump plays normal political wife, just for one week

Melania and Donald Trump at his MSG meeting.
Photo: Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

If Michelle Obama, Ann Romney, or Jill Biden spent the final weeks of a presidential election introducing their spouse at campaign rallies, giving fluffy cable news interviews, and promoting their (almost certainly ghostwritten) book, this would be completely unremarkable. In fact, Doug Emhoff has relentlessly executed all of these political spouse tasks – (apart from hooking up a memoir) and you probably haven’t heard a word about it.

Still, it’s a bit jarring to see Melania Trump suddenly behaving like a normal aspiring first lady in the final weeks of the presidential election, to the point that headlines about her brief remarks at Donald Trump’s racist Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday largely described her acting as a “surprise” or even a “shock.”

Melania has taught the public to expect less than the bare minimum for a political spouse. She skipped the launch of Donald’s re-election campaign in November 2022, along with every single one of his campaign and court appearances over the past two years (except for some private fundraisers for a Republican LGBTQ group, which gave her a six-figure check). She showed up to the Republican National Convention, but she waited until the fourth night, went in alone and didn’t give a speech.

Still, Melania has been a conspicuous presence in the final days of the campaign. She did several interviews with Fox News to promote her memoir, which landed on New York Times bestseller list. And she endorsed Trump’s re-election bid in those appearances, not just her own book, finally putting to rest the ridiculous talk that she was a secret”resistance hero.” (According to Melania, her husband is “really a family man,” and his biggest mistake as president was “strong tweets.”) said Anders will bring the “magic back” to the US in his introduction at MSG. Tuesday morning she came along Fox & Friends to ask fawning questions about her husband. And she even promoted appearance on her Truth Social account, a space usually reserved for flaunting her NFTs and flashy jewelry.

Of course, Melania’s appearances haven’t been completely drama-free. She appeared to dodge Donald’s attempt to kiss her on the lips at MSG:

And most political spouses don’t have to deal with questions like, “They keep calling your husband another Hitler. How does that make you feel?”

Melania’s response: “It’s terrible. He is not Hitler. And all his supporters, they’re behind him because they want to see the country successful, and we see the kind of support he has.”

Her response was somewhat garbled, but Melania’s overall message is as clear as can be without writing it on the back of a jacket: “I really don’t care … for now.”