Don’t feel sorry for her, Melania is strong and smart... she’s having the last laugh
FIRST LADY MORE THAN CAPABLE OF HANDLING CRITICS
YOU have to hand it to Melania Trump after her meteoric rise from model to First Lady.
There’s a photo shoot of her from 2000 in a red bikini and heels, lying like a cat across a carpet emblazoned with the presidential seal.
The international model had come to America from Slovenia – and her ambition was clear.
And 16 years later she was in the White House as the First Lady of the United States.
Nobody could have identified Trump as the future president back then, but she did. Now she’s having the last laugh.
She can’t be rattled. She’s tougher than Trump even. She’s like the Teflon FLOTUS. As she has said herself: “People don’t really know me. I’m very strong. I can handle everything. Don’t feel sorry for me.”
Strong, smart, sophisticated, stylish and supernaturally beautiful, Melania has been masterfully dignified in her role ever since she stunned in a 1960s powder-blue suit on inauguration day.
The fact Donald Trump gets to have a wife who commands such respect and admiration is maddening to his enemies.
That’s why those whose aim is to tear the president down have zoned in on trying to take away the one thing he doesn’t want to lose – her love.
Surely the humiliation, gossip and revelations will force her to leave him? But if anything it appears to make this power couple even closer.
Melania’s stoic silence in the face of salacious stories about Trump’s infidelity has been reminiscent of Michelle Obama’s response to bullies: “When they go low, we go high.”
It reached a new low this week, with the release of Stormy Daniels’ memoir Full Disclosure, which is full of prurient detail about her affair with Trump back in 2006, a year into his marriage to Melania.
The porn star stoops to the cliched insult of mocking his manhood, describing it as “smaller than average, but not freakishly small – like the mushroom character in Mario Kart.”
Lovely. Daniels – who was paid $130,000 to keep quiet about the affair during the presidential campaign – tries to elevate herself saying she was later repulsed to see Trump on TV, thinking: “I had sex with that? Euch…” Well, whose choice was that? Her story follows that of Playboy playmate Karen Mcdougal, who claims to have a 10-month affair with the billionaire during the same time period.
Mcdougal told how she was “in love” with Trump and believed he was in love with her. She even voted for him for president. It kind of sounds like she’s still in love with him – and sorry only that he refused to leave his marriage. It’s hard for many to comprehend how Melania can stand the hurt and pain these revelations surely bring.
Those who consider themselves modern feminists stand in judgment and criticise her for standing by Donald and his infidelities.
They are instantly outraged by men who have affairs – and utterly scathing of the women who “put up” with them. But this viewpoint
Surely all the revelations will force her to leave him? If anything it’s made them even closer
I believe there is only one centre to her world and it’s not Donald, it’s her young son Barron
does not consider that some women are happy to turn a blind eye to a husband who seeks sex outside marriage – once it suits them too.
Often they are just too busy with life to care that much. Who knows? They may do it themselves if they get a bit bored with the drudge of marital life.
European cultural attitudes to marriage are very different to American – with Europeans more pragmatic about the realities of marriage and more focused on the family, rather than the couple as a unit.
It is particularly apparent when it comes to women who go for alpha males, often in the world of politics or sport.
At French president Francois Mitterand’s funeral, his wife and mistress stood side-by-side.
Ex-chelsea manager Avram Grant’s wife Tzofit, a famous TV presenter and mother of two, was unperturbed by newspaper revelations of him visiting a brothel, saying: “If Avram wanted to go to a brothel, it’s his choice. He can do whatever he wants with his body.”
Even in America, the strongest of women have been seen to stand by their man. Hillary Clinton was excoriated for sticking with Bill after his indiscretions with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Yet their strength as a couple meant she went on to be a presidential candidate herself – and nearly became president.
Despite the fairytale romance of John F Kennedy and Jackie Bouvier, JFK had numerous affairs, including one with Marilyn Monroe. Jackie later married the world’s richest man, Aristotle Onassis.
It’s patronising and dismissive to call them doormats – who’s to say they’re not empowered and progressive?
For some women it’s just not that big a deal – once their husband is discreet about it.
They are often successful, busy women in their own right and have better things to do than obsess about what their husband may or may not be doing.
That they accept monogamy – over a lengthy marriage – may be unsustainable. Their security is not threatened by passing entertainment.
They have an ability to compartmentalise sex and value other merits over fidelity. They prize strength, power, money, achievement and family unity. I believe there is only one centre to Melania’s world and it’s not Donald Trump – it’s their 12-year-old son Barron.
She has always known Donald Trump was not the faithful type. He left his first wife Ivanka for his second wife Marla, with Marla recounting their affair in a New York Post story headlined: Best sex I ever had!
He was with another woman at a party when he met Melania in 1998. He sent his date off to the bathroom while he gave Melania his number and she later said: “I’d heard he was a ladies’ man, so I said, ‘I’m not one of the ladies’.”
Melania seems to be fair game for ridicule, from “liberal” commentators such as Rosie O’donnell and Chelsea Handler, whose attacks on her reveal more about themselves.
O’donnell suggested: “You should divorce him, take your son and flee” while talk show host Handler said the First Lady “could barely speak English” when in fact she speaks five languages.
They are too narrow-minded to consider that although Trump may be the most powerful man on earth, it’s Melania who’s running the show.