Quiet Melania Trump plods at the end of her husband’s turbulent term

“This is not the first time she’s learned what he’s doing, because he tweeted it before he told her,” the source said, underestimating the importance of the first lady appearing on her apparent schedule, based on Trump se bui. that particular day.

The staff, like many, were clear that the occasion with the tweet did not ask for their sympathy for the first lady.

“She’s part of it. She can keep quiet, but she’s part of it,” the source said.

These are the recent activities of the president, the denial of his loss, the complicity in inciting incited supporters with lies and conspiracy theories, and the abdication of an official role. The outgoing first lady has done nothing of significance as the weeks of her term of office come to an end. According to a source familiar with her activities, she did not set up an office to continue her platform in the years following the White House. She also did not help with the boarding of incoming first lady Jill Biden – with whom she still has not made contact, the source said.

The only thing Trump has done, other than pack the White House, work on photo albums of her time as first lady and oversee photo sessions of a rug and decorative items, is to make a complicated statement about the events. of last Wednesday, five days after they took place.

“There has never been a first lady who was as stubborn and defiant as Melania Trump,” said Kate Andersen Brower, author of “First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies.” “I think she is digging in. I think she has channeled her husband’s anger and is obviously not interested in the traditional role of a first lady who wants to unite and soothe the country in times of crisis.”

Instead, she stood by the president, something she has not always done in times of unrest. In her statement Monday morning, Trump did not mention her husband’s name, nor did she indicate that he should be held responsible for the uprising.

Instead, she seemed to have lifted parts of old statements and speeches in this new one and in a paragraph added her as a victim of the continued criticism of a former staff member. Trump’s reluctant manner sometimes aroused the curiosity of the public about how in line she is with the president, especially when he is criticized. Her swatting with her hand, a look in his eyes and frequent outbursts of independent opinions created a possible scenario for critics of her husband that she might not be like him or even not like him.

But if the past few weeks have proved anything, it is that she is more in line with the president than most would assume.

“She understands her husband and what he stands for, and it simply does not bother her,” Brower said. “She is not a victim and will not leave the White House to apologize for her husband’s behavior.”

Trump ‘is not sad to leave’

While the president publicly competed against the election, fraudulently claiming it was fraudulent and clinging to the false hope of staying in the White House, his wife packed their belongings to move out, several sources say that Trump’s activities observed since the end of November.

The first lady is now more than halfway done shipping belongings to Mar-a-Lago or storing them, while overseeing the move for weeks at a time. The residence staff had to help with the semi-clandestine operation, to facilitate logistical packaging without increasing the anger of the president, who truly believed he would stay.

The residence staff remains in their roles, many through various administrations. It does not matter who the president is, it just matters that they represent the US presidency.

“They are the most patriotic people I have ever met,” said Brower, whose first book was ‘The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House.’ “They continued with the move, but they had to do part of it under cover because they did not want to upset Trump (president).”

Melania Trump’s advantage in being packaged and ready also indicates her desire to finish with Washington and the past four years of dramatic highs and lows.

“(Melania Trump) is not sad to leave,” a White House official said, noting Trump’s mood.

This is one place where she differs from her husband – he desperately wants to stay, she’s nice to go.

“Pat Nixon is the most recent example I can think of of a first lady who compares to Melania Trump at all,” Brower said, but perhaps only in circumstances, not in action.

“While Watergate was raging, Pat Nixon spent a lot of time in her room alone in the residence. Butlers brought her breakfast and often she only drank the coffee. People around her were worried about her health because it was clear that Watergate “was drinking. a toll and she lost weight,” the author said.

Goat tradition

Those who have been around Trump for the past two weeks have not noticed that their behavior is shifting to isolation and sadness; it was actually Trump’s lack of emotional connection to the terrifying riots that unfolded live on television, and her lack of desire to immediately deliver an immediate release response or condemnation of the violence in real time, that spurred two of her longest-serving staff members. have to immediately submit their resignations, sources said.

“Usually the first lady of a one-term president comes to his side in public. President Ford serves less than a full term, and Betty Ford actually stepped in to read out his concession letter to Carter when he lost in 1976,” he said. said Brower.

On Wednesday, an announcement was made that Blair House, the historic official guest house of the White House where several presidents (including Trump) spent the night before their inauguration, would also welcome Biden to stay. CNN previously reported Biden, without an invitation the president and first lady for Blair House still addressed to him, was planning to stay at an inauguration night in a hotel.

But the invitation was not sent at Melania Trump’s insistence.

“She had nothing to do with it,” staff said. The invitation may have read ‘White House’, but it was issued via the State Department, whose office of the head of protocol oversees the management of Blair House.