MELANIA — OUR EVA?
It’s Melania mania! And is it Evita time once more? Sneed is sensing a whiff of political canonization wafting in first lady Melania
Trump’s direction, whose approval ratings are swimming — despite the Trumpster dumpster brimming with flimflam and falsehoods.
( Melania’s poll numbers, up to 57 percent in May, took a slight dip mid- June when she kept out of the public eye for 25 days after kidney surgery.)
Is Melania, the Slovenian- born former model who once posed for nude pix, becoming our nation’s version of Argentina’s legendary first lady Eva Peron, the second wife of corrupt Argentine President Juan Peron — who became a beloved icon in her country?
Peron stole from his people. Eva purred to the poor. Now a U. S. citizen who conveys a convoy of caring in her demur Slovenian accent, Melania has carefully chosen her public outings in quiet, private ways, showing up to honor American soldiers and visiting hospitalized children. Sometimes privately. Sometimes with fanfare. Many times without her husband at her side. Like Eva, Melania likes flying solo. Like Eva, Melania does it in style. The first lady seems to garner more attention when going it alone — visiting the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in D. C.; heading without announcement to their estate at Mar- a- Lago in Palm Beach, Florida; deciding without advance hubby permission to visit detention centers for immigrant children in Texas this week.
And like Eva, Melania has power over her husband because of Presi
dent Donald Trump’s obsession with poll numbers!
“She’s independent, her own person,” Trump acolyte Corey “Womp Womp” Lewandowski once told Sneed. “Melania is nobody’s fool.” Fool? Maybe not. Tool? Well, that’s something else.
A Vallas volt . . .
Opa! No surprise mayoral candidate Paul
Vallas, of Grecian descent, is holding a fundraiser next Thursday at Athena Greek restaurant on South Halsted Street.
Seat mates?
Hmmm. Breaking bad . . . then breaking bread? Was it a coincidence that GOP candidate for Illinois attorney general ( and former Miss America) Erika Harold, who is backed by Gov. Bruce Rauner, sat next to Rauner’s nemesis, John Tillman, head of the Illinois Policy Institute, at the Civic Federation’s Annual Awards luncheon?
† Buckshot: Tillman backed the candidacy of conservative Rep.
Jeanne Ives against Rauner in the spring primary for governor.
Just asking.
Sneedlings . . .
Saturday’s birthdays: Zinedine Zidane, 46; Randy Jackson, 62; and LaDainian Tomlinson, 39. . . . Sunday’s birthdays: Lionel Messi, 31; Mindy Kaling, 39; and Mo’ne Davis, 17.