Melania Trump shows her less serious side on solo tour of Africa
First lady wants to show we really do care
CAIRO — It took Melania Trump’s first big solo international trip for her to show a different side of herself — a playful, less serious one.
And while she generously dished out warm smiles and happy waves, the first lady also used her fournation tour of Africa to draw some firmer boundaries between her own views and those of her husband, the president.
“I don’t always agree with what he says, and I tell him that,” the first lady told reporters Saturday before she headed back to Washington. “But I have my own voice and my own opinions, and it’s very important for me that I express what I feel.”
The U.S. first lady hopscotched across Africa without President Donald Trump, commanding a spotlight that was hers alone. In doing her own thing, the very private first lady essentially peeled back the curtain ever so slightly as she wiped away the serious face she wears around Washington.
She demonstrated her independence from her husband in ways large and small —talking up U.S. foreign aid and ignoring the Fox-only edict that the president imposes on TV screens when he’s aboard Air Force One.
The first lady also did a few things she has never done before, like wave to journalists as she boarded a U.S. government aircraft for the grueling five-day tour across multiple time zones. With big smiles on her face, sometimes paired with the unfamiliar sound of her laughter, she cuddled babies and bottle-fed young elephants.
And she sashayed and shimmied and danced.
The trip, which had been in the works for months, provided a welcome escape from the ugly political battle in the U.S. capital over Brett Kavanaugh, the president’s Supreme Court nominee. Kavanaugh’s fate had seemed in doubt.
Kavanaugh has denied the abuse charge and on Saturday was confirmed to an appointment on America’s highest court.
Even half a world away, Trump couldn’t completely ignore the issue. Reporters asked her opinion of the judge, and she said he was “highly qualified” to join the court. As for Kavanaugh’s accusers, Trump declined to venture an opinion but said, “We need to help all victims, no matter what kind of abuse” they experienced.
The struggle over Kavanaugh resurfaced the roiling debate over the treatment of women who allege sexual misconduct. The first lady has had to grapple with that issue herself, given the multiple women who have accused her husband of sexually inappropriate behavior, claims he says are false.
Always under a microscope, the fashion-conscious first lady caught some criticism for the white pith helmet she wore with her safari ensemble in Kenya. Social media lit up with complaints about her choice of a hat viewed by some as a symbol of Kenya’s colonial past and its one-time domination by the British.
The former model had a terse rejoinder when asked about that: “I wish people would focus on what I do, not what I wear.”
What, then, was her intended message for Africa? “That we care and we want to show the world we care.”
The happier place Trump seemed to go to while in Africa surprised some. “She’s still largely a mystery to the American people because she maintains her largely low profile,” said Katherine Jellison, who studies first ladies.