Melania proves she’s top Trump

MELANIA TRUMP has decamped to Florida to revamp the place in Mar-aLago. Though there have been rumblings of disquiet from the neighbours who don’t want the Trumps living in the resort full time.

“She just wants to go home,” someone in the know told CNN. She’s been packing things up and moving them out of the White House to either Florida or the New York apartment in Trump Tower. She’s been looking at schools for their 14-year-old son Barron.

Designer Tham Kannalikham, who redecorated the Trumps’ private quarters in the White House, is said to be engaged in an “aesthetic facelift” at Mar-a-lago where the mood board is gold and more gold.

Melania may be moving on but Donald Trump has still not conceded to Joe Biden. Yet last week in a ceremony which is usually simply a matter of form the Electoral College confirmed a Biden victory. Congress will then meet on January 6 to declare the winner. The inauguration of the new President will take place on January 20. Vladimir Putin has sent a message of congratulation which surely clinches it. If Russia agrees it’s all over for Trump, then – as the man said in the 1966 World Cup – it is now.

Everything concerned with a presidential election – from the campaigning to the counting of votes – takes an extraordinary amount of time. But I was fascinated to read that on January 20 – the day of the handover – there is only a five-hour window between the ex moving out and the new one moving in.

During that time an army of cleaners and fitters are to erase all traces of the Donald Trump years. This will be the mother of all deep cle cleans reflecting not only the White House’s bad record as a den of C Covid infections but also – I im imagine – Mr and Mrs Biden’s u undiluted distaste for Trump and everything he stands for. Soft furnishings and doorknobs are all to be replaced.

Will the ex-president decline to attend the inauguration and handcuff himself to a bannister on the White House back stairs claiming that he was robbed of victory? Will he have to be escorted

from the possible.

It’s customary for First Ladies to leave their mark on the White House as Jackie Kennedy did so spectacularly when she embarked on her own fastidious and muchpraised restoration in 1961. Michelle Obama had her vegetable garden and

premises? Anything

seems

Melania created a handsome new tennis pavilion (funded by private donations) for which she was inevitably criticised on social media. No wonder she wants to get the hell out.

Meanwhile I’m afraid Donald strikes me as the kind of tenant who will leave no loo paper and remove all the lightbulbs.