Normalize Melania.
Normalize Melania.
I n 2016, the editor of one of the most important fashion magazines in the country had already done a cover shoot with Hillary Clinton, celebrating her as the first woman to be elected president. It was part of a larger bid to be more political, which included making Vogue’s first-ever presidential endorsement earlier that year. In fact, the magazine had planned out nearly half a year to celebrate “women in power.” It all came crashing down when Donald J. Trump won. Vogue wasn’t the only one to get out over its skis politically. Glamour had done soft-focus pieces for the Obamas that year, while conducting a relentlessly negative interview with Ivanka Trump. The fashion press along with much of the formerly apolitical cultural media, already in decline, could not stand against the general thrust of the media, so they joined the resistance to the Trump era.
America seemed to lose something in the new arrangement; it lost the first lady of the United States, as she has been understood since the Kennedy era. Normally, the first lady is treated by the press as a symbol of the glamour and good-heartedness of the American people themselves. The first lady often becomes a reason for promoting some fashion designers, as she chooses gowns and dresses for major occasions. And she usually takes on some philanthropic or social-cultural role. Although they could be nasty to her, the press relentlessly pushed Nancy Reagan’s campaign against drug abuse. The press noted Laura Bush’s fondness for Oscar de la Renta gowns. Michelle Obama became identified with her campaign against childhood obesity and for better nutrition for children. A major post–White House memoir came to be expected and would typically earn millions for its publisher.
But for Trump’s four years in office, Melania was treated almost as an accessory to a crime rather than as first lady. Sometimes she was baited, as if the whole country shared an understanding of her as a traitor to her gender. Other times, the media jokingly played with the idea that she was secretly on their side and against her own husband. A former adviser recorded her misgivings over the so-called child-separation policy and leaked them to the media, fueling this speculation. Melania Trump, like Michelle Obama before her, was not thrilled with life in Washington. She was also fiercely protective of her son, Barron. At one point, she seemed to taunt the press back when she wore a jacket emblazoned with the phrase, “I really don’t care, do you?” She pointedly said the jacket was a message for “the people and the left-wing media” criticizing her. This was quite a long way from her initial anticipation of life as first lady, in which Melania held out Jackie Kennedy and Betty Ford as the role models she hoped to imitate.
After the Trumps left office, the media immediately reverted to its normal relationship with the first lady. “Doctor” Jill Biden has been glamorized by what remains of the fashion press. She desired a musical cue, along the lines of “Hail to the Chief,” and a “Fanfare for the First Lady” was duly composed for her
With Trump having won the popular vote in 2024, there seems to be some recognition that the press and establishment have to reckon with the Trump phenomenon — and not just resist it. Trump has in some ways normalized his role in public life by normalizing himself within the Republican Party first.
Perhaps the first step is treating Melania Trump as a normal first lady. That means, first of all, treating her as someone with no political aspirations beyond the success of the country itself. In some ways, this should be a relief to media outlets starved for glamour, because Melania Trump is a former supermodel and an immigrant success story. She is a natural subject for soft-focus, glossy press. It would be a relief for the fashion industry to depoliticize the first lady and allow this statuesque woman to be photographed in some of the world’s best clothes.
Right now, Melania Trump and the media are falling back into their antagonistic relationship. Mrs. Trump’s announcement that she would not attend a sit-down with the Bidens was accompanied by a warning from her office: “Be discerning with your source of news.” For a traditional “view” of First Lady Melania, people have had to turn to social-media accounts like the Instagram account, @alwaysMelania.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Our media institutions and civic life should be able to just recognize and celebrate the fact that the first lady of the United States is a beautiful, dignified woman, with a mind (and politics) of her own. They’ve been able to do it before.