Statuesque, sphinxlike and decked out in Dior, First Lady Melania Trump would often rather not do the talking.
That’s why the 55-year-old’s intervention into no less a diplomatic quagmire than the Ukraine war came as such a shock.
In the form of a letter – hand delivered by her husband, President Donald Trump, to Vladimir Putin during their peace summit last week in Alaska – Melania flattered the Russian leader that he could ‘singlehandedly’ restore the ‘melodic laughter’ of children and that, in doing so, he would ‘serve humanity itself’.
Setting aside the boldness of an attempt to appeal to the softer side of one of the world’s most feared dictators – a man accused of multiple bloody war crimes – the tenor of the letter was intriguing.
Not once did Melania mention Ukraine by name. But her message was clear. She was referring to the tens of thousands of Ukrainian children cruelly abducted by Russian forces during the three-year war.
Which makes it all the more surprising that the letter – at least as Trump told it to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday – was ‘very well received’ by Putin.
Trumpian braggadocio? Perhaps.
But Melania’s soft diplomacy has earned rare compliments from across the aisle.
No less a standard-bearer of the Democratic Party than the former press secretary to Melania’s predecessor Jill Biden, Michael LaRosa, told the Daily Mail: ‘This was an intentional move by President Trump and the First Lady as a team – a move that we do not see very often. It’s one of the few moments I can recall that I’ve seen the two of them work brilliantly together as a political force.’
Friends say this was merely a public demonstration of the stealth power Melania has long exerted in private.
According to Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager and senior counsellor during his first term: ‘Behind closed doors, Trump has, for decades, regarded his wife as a top confidante and counsellor. Whether as an international business mogul, or TV star or leader of the free world, it is Melania’s opinion that he has consistently sought. He fears yet reveres her.’
But if last week’s letter proved anything, it is that ‘behind closed doors’ is no longer where Melania wants to remain.
It has not gone unnoticed.
One impeccably placed Trump insider told the Daily Mail: ‘It’s certainly the talk of the White House. It makes you wonder: What’s changed behind closed doors? Are we witnessing a breaking of ranks?’
With a nod to Melania’s recent threat to sue Hunter Biden – wayward son of former President Biden – for $1billion over what she describes as his ‘false, disparaging, defamatory and inflammatory’ allegation that she was introduced to her husband by sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the insider continued: ‘Rule no.1 of being First Lady is to avoid talking about the scandals surrounding your husband. Instead, she’s out front making threats over Hunter’s Epstein allegations. It fans the flames and makes you think she won’t be told what to do.’
Perhaps that intention was telegraphed in her official first lady portrait back in January – for which she posed not in a suitable frock, but a Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo, its satin-trim lapels set over a crisp cotton shirt and paired with a Ralph Lauren cummerbund.
She leaned forward on a mirrored boardroom table and stared down the camera lens with masculine ferocity. The look said it all: ‘I mean business.’
To that end, and in contrast to Trump’s first term, this time around Melania has built out her East Wing offices with an unprecedently large team, turning to John Rogers, former assistant to Ronald Reagan and now executive vice president at Goldman Sachs, for staffing advice.
In the first administration, Melania memorably didn’t even move from New York City to join Trump in the White House until their son Barron, then 11, had finished the school year – six months after the inauguration.
But she did find time to quash First Daughter Ivanka Trump’s alleged attempts to elbow into her territory.
As the story goes, Ivanka, now 43, had audaciously requested to rename the East Wing office of the First Lady as the ‘Office of the First Family.’
According to one insider, the suggestion left Melania furious.
‘The role of the First Lady can be underestimated and underreported, but there are so many hidden powers a First Lady possesses, should she choose to use them,’ said Jill Biden’s former press secretary LaRosa.
He knows what he’s talking about, of course: Jill, 74, stands accused of wielding undue influence as her declining 82-year-old husband clung to the seat of power.
Anita McBride, who served as chief of staff for another deeply private first lady, Laura Bush, sees Melania’s Putin letter as pivotal.
Likening it to Laura Bush’s memorable 2001 radio address, decrying the Taliban’s treatment of women in Afghanistan, McBride said: ‘Nobody expected Laura Bush to do that. She was a quiet First Lady as well.’
But for Melania, it’s not just about diplomatic power or influence inside White House walls.
Increasingly, we are seeing her seek out an identity outside politics and – despite being married to a billionaire – her own money.
In April and July last, Melania was paid $240,000 to deliver two speeches to the LGBT group Log Cabin Republicans.
In October, she published her eponymous memoir. And, in January, it emerged that she had struck a $40million deal for a fly-on-the-wall documentary with Amazon.
As her stature grows, it is worth considering that, at age 79, Trump’s may be diminishing. And how, for all his undeniable vigour there has been an inevitable, if subtle, shift in the dynamic of their relationship.
One source close to the couple’s inner circle told the Daily Mail: ‘There is a possibility that [Trump] is reaching for Melania for both emotional and physical stability. The president is getting older. His gait is not as steady.’
In 1999, six years before her wedding to Trump, a then 26-year-old Melania Knauss told ABC News what she would like it if she were First Lady – a surely fantastical notion at the time.
But, full as it may have been with youthful hubris, the answer she gave still holds.
‘I will be very traditional like Jackie Kennedy. I would support him,’ Melania said.
According to those close to her, the First Lady is still struck by the figure of Jackie O, a woman whose iconic stature she would dearly love to attain.
As one insider put it: ‘Melania sees herself as one of the greats.’
