Melania Trump keeps DC entry low key; Barron draws interest
WASHINGTON » Two weeks into her new life as a fulltime Washingtonian, Melania Trump is staying true to her reputation as more homebody than social butterfly.
Not that she hasn’t been busy fulfilling her duties as first lady and first mom.
Job One has been settling in 11-year-old son Barron — the first boy to live in the White House since John F. Kennedy Jr. more than 50 years ago.
Even the small details of every recent Barron sighting have drawn interest: his T-shirt reading “The Expert,” his grasp on a popular fidget spinner toy as he exited Air Force One, his pivot to take a picture of the Marine One helicopter as the family returned from a Father’s Day weekend retreat at Camp David.
Mrs. Trump told “Fox and Friends” last week that she’s enjoying White House life so much that she’s not really missing New York. She said Barron is “all settled” and “loves it here.”
In her first lady role, Mrs. Trump has played host to her counterpart from Panama for a lunch upstairs in the private quarters of the White House. She also accompanied President Donald Trump to the hospital to visit a Louisiana congressman and others who were shot while practicing baseball, and helped plan a picnic for members of Congress on the White House lawn.
She’s also preparing to accompany the president to Poland and Germany after the Fourth of July holiday.
Questions remain, though, about what kind and how social a first lady Mrs. Trump will be.
Will she dine out at the city’s trendiest restaurants? Pedal up a sweat at SoulCycle spinning classes? Try to go incognito on a Target shopping run?
“I don’t know anybody in New York who knows her or ever sees her socially and I suspect that will be the same here,” said Sally Quinn, an author and Washington hostess.
Even the president has described his third wife, a 47-year-old former model and native of Slovenia, as more happy at home than working the social scene.
“She would go home at night and didn’t even want to go out with people,” Trump said of his wife’s life in New York. “She was a very private person.”
Mrs. Trump and Barron continued to live at Trump Tower after the Jan. 20 inauguration so he could finish out the school year in New York. The first lady announced their June 11 move to Washington with a tweet.
“Looking forward to the memories we’ll make in our new home! #Movingday,” she wrote on a photo of the Washington Monument as seen from a White House window.
Spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said Mrs. Trump has been and will continue to be an active first lady. But she “is taking some time to get Barron settled into his new home and she continues to be thoughtful and deliberate about her platform.” Mrs. Trump said during the campaign that she would work to combat cyberbullying as first lady. She has made no further announcements about her plans.
The first lady also needs to hire more staff, including a lead curator to help chronicle White House history and preserve its artifacts. She filled the chief usher’s position last week with an employee from the Trump hotel down the street.