Are you fixating, like many Americans, on the exact state of the marriage of President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump? Here’s something new to chew on: He tried to steer her away from her “Be Best” campaign, which focuses on anti-bullying and other child wellness efforts.
On Friday, the New York Times reported that the president suggested she choose a different topic to avoid questions about his own Twitter habits.
People familiar with the conversations said he warned her that she was opening herself up to criticism. But she rejected his advice.
He also trumped her when it came to deciding how to furnish the White House family quarters.
No pun intended: The Times also published an anecdote from the first half of 2017, when the president was living solo at the White House and Melania remained in New York while son Barron, 12, finished his school year.
The newspaper reported that while she was still living in New York the first lady had selected some furniture for the residence that was in keeping with her taste: clean and modern.
“Yet in her absence, President Trump — whose tastes veer toward the gilded, triumphal style of Louis XIV — replaced her choices with several pieces he liked better,” the Times reported. “One of two people familiar with the episode cited it as an example of Mr. Trump’s tendency not to relent on even the smallest requests from his wife.”
The piece, bearing the headline “Melania Trump, a Mysterious First Lady, Weathers a Chaotic White House,” went on further to describe her as “a Rorschach test for public perceptions” of the Trump White House. Depending on whom you ask, she’s either a quietly loyal helpmate (as his supporters maintain) or a prisoner in a gilded cage who occasionally breaks out to lob subtle digs at Donald (a theory held by the president’s critics).
The first lady’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, has gone to some lengths over the last 18 months to dismiss the latter view and bolster the former. She insists that her boss is independent, knows her own mind, and is undeterred by criticism of either herself or her husband.