First lady puts on happier face during tour
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 four-nation 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 against the backdrop of the Great Sphinx 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 — like talking up U.S. foreign aid that he’s tried to slash 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’s 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 taking place in the U.S. capital over Brett Kavanaugh, the president’s Supreme Court nominee. Kavanaugh’s fate had seemed in doubt after he was accused of sexually assaulting a girl when they were teenagers.
Kavanaugh has denied the charge and on Saturday was confirmed to a lifetime appointment on America’s highest court.
Even half a world away, Mrs. Trump couldn’t completely ignore the issue. Reporters asked her opinion about the judge, and she said he was “highly qualified ” to join the court. As for Kavanaugh’s accusers, Mrs. 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.