Melania Trump Plays Normal Political Wife for One Week Only

Melania and Donald Trump at his MSG rally. Photo: Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images

If Michelle Obama, Ann Romney, or Jill Biden spent the final weeks of a presidential election introducing their spouse at campaign rallies, giving fluffy cable-news interviews, and promoting their (almost certainly ghostwritten) book, this would be totally unremarkable. Indeed, Doug Emhoff has been relentlessly performing all of these political-spouse tasks (except for plugging a memoir), and you probably haven’t heard a word about it.

Yet seeing Melania Trump suddenly behave like a normal aspiring First Lady in the final weeks of the presidential election is a bit jarring, to the point that headlines about her brief remarks at Donald Trump’s racist Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday widely described her appearance as a “surprise” or even a “shock.”

Melania has taught the public to expect less than the bare minimum for a political spouse. She skipped Donald’s November 2022 reelection-campaign launch, along with every one of his campaign and court appearances over the last two years (except for some private fundraisers for a LGBTQ Republican group, which gave her a six-figure check). She did show up to the Republican National Convention, but she waited until the fourth night, walked in by herself, and didn’t give a speech.

Yet Melania has been conspicuously present in the final days of the campaign. She did multiple interviews with Fox News to promote her memoir, which landed on the New York Times best-seller list. And she plugged Trump’s reelection bid in these appearances, not just her own book, finally laying to rest the ridiculous chatter about her being a secret “resistance hero.” (According to Melania, her husband is “really a family man” and his main failing as president was “strong tweets.”) She said Donald will bring the “magic back” to the United States in her introduction at MSG. On Tuesday morning she joined Fox & Friends to field fawning questions about her husband. And she even promoted the appearance on her Truth Social account, a space usually reserved for hawking her NFTs and garish jewelry.

Of course, Melania’s appearances haven’t been entirely drama free. She appeared to dodge Donald’s attempt to kiss her on the lips at MSG:

And most political spouses don’t have to address questions like, “They’re still calling your husband a second Hitler. How does that make you feel?”

Melania’s response: “It’s terrible. He’s not Hitler. And all of his supporters, they standing behind him because they want to see country successful and we see what kind of support he has.”

Her answer was somewhat garbled, but Melania’s overall message is as clear as it can be, without scrawling it on the back of a jacket: “I really do care … for now.”