Recently, the New York Times published a truly eye-opening exposé of former First Lady Melania Trump, in the form of a comparison between Donald Trump’s third wife and her FLOTUS successor, First Lady Jill Biden.
While the comparisons alone are rife with interesting points and information about the two women, what’s most striking is the Times’ painting of Melania Trump as one of the laziest, uninterested, and uninvolved first ladies in the history of this country.
The first half of the NYT piece covers various things about First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. However, the meat of the story about Melania Trump begins under the subheading, “Something bad happened.”
As we’re all well aware by now, following her husband’s humiliating and rather dramatic 2020 election loss, while Donald was fighting tooth and nail and inciting literal insurrections in an effort to stay in the White House, his wife didn’t share his interest in keeping their address for another 4 years.
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The Times’ sectioning covering Melania Trump opens, “On Jan. 6, 2021, Donald J. Trump wanted to stay in the White House. But his wife just wanted to go home.”
What follows is a grim picture of a woman who was so uninvested, disinterested, and truly “checked out,” that she was rarely even getting dressed:
For months, Mrs. Trump had taken to walking around the Executive Residence in hotel-style terry cloth robes. Throughout her husband’s presidency, she often perched on the bed in his room to listen to or join in on his calls with advisers and allies, Stephanie Grisham, Mrs. Trump’s former press secretary, said in an interview.
The bombshell tell-all piece goes on to describe Melania’s borderline obsession with “assembling photo albums of all the aesthetic changes she had made at the White House while she was first lady.”
According to sources who spoke with the Times, Melania’s disinterest and overall refusal to even really participate in the day-to-day life of a first lady eventually decayed to a point that other White House departments began commandeering her unused space in the East Wing for things like gift-wrapping rooms and a secure communications facility.
According to several former aides, Mrs. Trump had visited the East Wing, where the first lady has an official office and staff, so infrequently that her empty office had been converted into a gift-wrapping room. The White House Military Office, sensing an opportunity to claim coveted White House territory, converted part of the unused East Wing into a secure communications facility.”
The severity of this painting of Melania by the New York Times even caught the attention of NBC Senior Executive Mike Sington, who took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and noted that the Times “portrays Melania Trump as one of the laziest, most disengaged First Ladies ever”:
New York Times portrays Melania Trump as one of the laziest, most disengaged First Ladies ever:
“Jill Biden wanted to keep teaching. Melania Trump just wanted to go home.”
“The outgoing First Lady (Melania Trump) had taken to wearing terry cloth bathrobes during the day and… pic.twitter.com/Hew9svYLRo
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) February 18, 2024
Frankly, we all knew that Melania was more than ready to leave when her husband lost his bid for reelection. However, I don’t think anyone was prepared for just how desperately it seems she had no desire to be there in the first place.
Find the full comparison article from the New York Times here (subscription required.)
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
