Melania Trump's eponymously titled memoir is a 180-page exercise in bug-passing and accusations. Former US First Lady Michelle Obama Blames Staff for Stealing; Reiterates her love for her husband despite claiming to hate lying liars; And declares abortion a basic right without pausing to consider Donald Trump's role in attacking it through the US Supreme Court.
Melania is by no means a complete read, but it does make the reader wonder why she chose her soul a few weeks ago. Election. Or maybe Kamala Harris can shift her policy preferences more precisely than her husband, the Republican nominee.
Many subjects are missing. Not surprisingly, Melania says nothing about the other women in her husband's life: E Jean Carroll (the woman Donald defamed and sexually assaulted); Stormy Daniels (the adult film star whose hush-payment leads to Donald's conviction); Karen McDougal (former Playboy playmate with whom Donald had an affair). Little is known about Donald's eldest daughter, Ivanka. He said Melania would have dated whoever she was if she wasn't flesh and blood to hate being told. Other women may never see Trump's children. Melania repeatedly says she loves her own son Barron and his parents.
Indeed, no clue is given as to who helped Melania write it. In contrast to the history-breaking White House memoir of Ivanka's husband, Jared Kushner, Melania did not offer endorsements. It's a good bet someone gave her a hand.
His book has 64 pages of photographs. The lead-off is a passport page that was stamped at JFK in New York on 27 August 1996, the day Melania arrived in the US. The final page is the “Digital Collection” at melaniatrump.com. Like her husband, brand is everything. “Financial independence is a core value of mine,” writes Melania. “Melania timepieces and jewelry represent my passion, my project and my business – a symbol of freedom, self-esteem and empowerment for all women.”
Understandably, Melania's policies have received much attention. Not to mention Dobbs v. Jackson, including three hard-liners founded by Donald Trump, with the Supreme Court taking away constitutional rights to abortion and privacy, and his stand for personal liberty is full-throated.
“It is imperative to guarantee the autonomy of women to decide their choice in having children, based on their own beliefs, without any interference or pressure from the government,” she thunders. “Restricting a woman's right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is tantamount to denying her control over her own body. I have carried this belief throughout my adult life.
Simply put, such words go along with his party record. Yet, another chapter is even more telling.
Melania fired staff for drafting the speech at the 2016 Republican convention. He stole Michelle Obama. And Melania manages to point the finger at herself.
“As I reviewed several speeches by previous first ladies, Michelle's emphasis on the core values of hard work, honesty and compassion resonated deeply,” she writes in a conversation with an aide who wrote the speech.
In other words, Melania is showing Michelle Obama's speech at the 2008 Democratic convention, parts of which she will repeat to Republicans in Cleveland in 2016.
There is more. Before speaking at the RNC, Melania “rehearsed several times with the teleprompter, feeling confident in my delivery.” Still, he says, when the theft was noticed and a media firestorm ensued, he was shocked.
“On closer examination, I was struck by the undeniable similarities between the two speeches.”
Really?
“I believed that any and all political and legal investigations were addressed, but now I realize that the campaign and the RNC have abandoned me.”
Talk about throwing employees under the bus. And yet, to quote the immortal words of Don Jr.'s fiancee Kimberly Guilfoyle: “The best is yet to come.”
“'Why isn't the speech verified?', I asked Donald in frustration … From then on, I realized the importance of being intimately involved in every detail of my public life. I no longer delegate specific tasks or rely on others to ensure my reputation is protected.
In particular, Melania blamed the Trump Organization's Meredith McIver – who says she herself read Michelle Obama's words, which Melania repeated. The saying goes that poop rolls downhill.
In her husband's case, too, Melania isn't in the blame game. Confusion that January 6 is actually dealt with as quickly as anything inconvenient that goes to his pages. She wags the finger at those who attacked the Capitol in an attempt to thwart Donald's 2020 defeat, but also says she didn't know most of the events of that fateful day.
“The violence we witnessed was unequivocally unacceptable,” he writes. But in his next breath, he adds, “I realized that many individuals felt that the election was rigged and that the vice presidential confirmation process should be stopped.”
Naturally, Melania's protests following the killing of George Floyd were particularly strident, complete with condemnations of the “inflammatory rhetoric of Black Lives Matter leaders”. In fact, he did not explicitly name Floyd, the Minneapolis man killed by police that sparked the hottest protests of the summer of 2020.
As for her husband's advice to “stay away” around the far-right Proud Boys election[,] Hang in there, it's going to be wild!”, or does he exhort followers to “fight like hell”?
Crickets.
Almost eight years have passed since Melania reportedly wept in grief on the night of the 2016 election, when her husband won the White House. She can still turn. Perhaps that would provide enough content for another 180 pages.
