The one thing that makes Melania Trump 'exactly like her husband': analysis

12 May

U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive for a celebration of U.S. military mothers at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 8, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis

Out of the nearly 120 days that President Donald Trump has been in the White House for his second term, First Lady Melania Trump has been there just a fraction of the time. And yet, one columnist is pointing out that she's already making her mark in a significant way.

In a recent essay for Bloomberg, journalist Nia-Malika Henderson explored the largely absent first lady's impact on the second Trump White House. She observed that at first glance, Melania's scant 14 days in the second Trump administration has left the East Wing of the White House mostly "dark" and the jobs normally done by first ladies now having to be done by the president himself, like choosing Oval Office decorations and his proposal to pave the Rose Garden.

But Henderson then pivoted to pointing out that even as Melania mostly spends her time in Palm Beach, Florida and New York City, the first lady is still managing to milk the typically unpaid position of presidential spouse for significant financial benefit.

"This time around, she sent an early signal in her official White House portrait, for which she wore a dark suit, indicating that she is approaching her role as a businesswoman intent on cashing in," Henderson wrote. "In this way, she is exactly like her husband, profiting off of the White House even as she’s hardly there."

Henderson further observed that Melania managed to get Amazon to pay her $40 million to produce a documentary about her life as first lady. And the Bloomberg columnist also noted that both she and her husband made millions off of "memecoins" named after themselves, which were launched just weeks before Trump's second inauguration.

"This level of grift is an unfortunate departure from other first ladies, who often donated the proceeds of whatever outside work they did, such as writing books," Henderson wrote.

"In a 2020 survey of historians and scholars, Melania Trump ranked as the least popular first lady and topped the list of modern first ladies who could have done more with the role," she added. "This time, she will do much less and get paid much more, continuing the evolution of the position for better and for worse."

Click here to read Henderson's full op-ed for Bloomberg (subscription required).

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