First lady’s international trip fueled by personality

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 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.”

Melania Trump 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 in Washington. She demonstrated her independence from her husband in ways large and small — such as talking up U.S. foreign aid that he’s tried to slash and ignoring the Foxonly edict that the president imposes on TV screens when he’s aboard Air Force One.

The first lady also did a few things she’d never done before, such as wave to journalists as she boarded a U.S. government aircraft for the grueling fiveday tour across multiple time zones. With big smiles on her face — paired sometimes with the unfamiliar sound of her laughter — she cuddled babies and bottlefed 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 Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the president’s Supreme Court nominee. Kavanaugh’s fate seemed in doubt after he was accused of sexually assaulting a girl when they were teenagers.

Kavanaugh denied the charge, and Saturday he was on track for confirmation to a lifetime appointment on America’s highest court.

Even half a world away, the first lady couldn’t completely ignore the issue. Reporters asked her opinion about Kavanaugh, and she said he was “highly qualified” to join the court. As for Kavanaugh’s accusers, the first lady 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 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 onetime 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.”