But not heard
2016, he was the subject of numerous allegations of sexual harassment.
His former business partner, Jill Harth, claimed he groped her breasts and groin in a 1997 incident that she branded “attempted rape”.
And a host of beauty queens and models Trump came into contact with allege he groped them and forced them to kiss him. He has also been accused of walking into dressing rooms at pageants while horrified teenage contestants changed their costumes. Trump strenuously denies all of the claims but they must leave a bitter taste in the mouth of former model Melania. And then there was the recording where Trump bragged that when he met beautiful women he felt he could “grab them by the pussy”. He brushed the remarks off as boys’ “locker room talk”. It is hard to imagine Michelle Obama, once dubbed the face of feminism, having such a muted response. Just one of these episodes would be enough to test most marriages, yet Melania has refused to condemn her husband.
And the scandals keep on coming. Most recently porn star Stormy Daniels alleged she had sex with Trump in 2006 and he tried to buy her silence.
Humiliating
For months, Trump and Daniels have been locked in a legal fight. There have even been claims the alleged “hush money” came from his presidential campaign fund, which he denies.
The affair, Daniels said, happened in 2006 – almost a decade after Trump met Melania at a New York party.
In fact, she claims Trump told her “not to worry” about Melania, or their now 12-year-old son Barron.
Humiliating? Perhaps – but Melania never lets it show. Yet there are rumours that, behind closed doors, the marriage is distant. She is said to spend a lot of time away from Washington, preferring to raise Barron in New York, where they lived before the political earthquake of 2016.
It appears only Trump’s hardline stance on immigration has tested the staunch public loyalty of Melania – who moved to the US from Slovenia in 1996.
One of his election vows was to build a wall between the US and Mexico. When it emerged earlier this year that thousands of migrant children had been separated from their parents at the US border – and some kept in cages – she weighed into the debate by saying the country should “govern with a heart”.
Melania then visited some children’s shelters in Texas, close to the Mexican border. The White House media machine said it was all her idea. Her spokesman, Stephanie Grisham, said: “She wanted to see everything herself. She supports family reunification. She thinks it’s important children stay with their families.” But for many, her feeble intervention is too little, too late. At the Chequers banquet with Mrs May this week, the PM’S husband Philip was Melania’s chaperone. The pair followed their spouses, Melania quietly falling into line, as her husband basked in the spotlight, as always. And it is hard to believe she will ever now do anything different.