Historians weigh in on the former first lady’s mysterious identity.
As we head into the final stretch of the 2024 race, it’s hard to turn on the news or scroll social media without hearing about Donald Trump. And while you may be unable to escape his signature coiffed hair or latest fiery remarks, his wife, Melania Trump, is especially difficult to pin down.
While Melania has always been known to keep a low profile, she has missed some of the most monumental events throughout her husband’s third presidential bid, including everything from the kickoff of the election in Iowa to the historic trial that ultimately convicted him of 34 felonies. Nor was she present at the July rally where the former president was shot in an assassination attempt, though she did share a surprisingly personal statement in reaction to the news. And despite attending one of Donald’s 2020 debates with President Joe Biden, she wasn’t there to see him face off against Biden this June or spar with Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this month, although both of their spouses were present.
That said, the former first lady has chosen to make a small handful of political appearances supporting his campaign. For instance, in March, she went with him to vote in Florida’s Republican presidential primary. But her biggest public event so far was attending the Republican National Convention in July. Though she received a standing ovation when she arrived, she defied convention by not delivering an address live on stage, as she did in both 2016 and 2020.
Behind the scenes, she has hosted two private fundraisers over the summer with the conservative LGBTQ group, Log Cabin Republicans. She was also on hand in March for a meeting at Mar-a-Lago with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who’s a close ally to Vladimir Putin.
The former president has tried to put to rest some of the speculation surrounding his wife’s whereabouts, acknowledging that she is a “private person.” However, sources close to the former first lady told CNN that she is “very selective and methodical in what she wants to do and how she presents herself.”
We got a fascinating account of this “methodical” thinking earlier this year in the new book American Woman, in which New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers reveals the motivation behind the infamous jacket Melania wore 2018 while visiting detained immigrant children in a Texas border town. You know the one — it read, “I really don’t care, do U?” While the first lady originally claimed the jacket was a message to the “left-wing media,” it was actually intended as a swipe at her husband’s daughter, Ivanka, according to this reporting.
Still, Melania’s touch-and-go public presence might seem odd to outsiders — especially in comparison to more enthusiastic spouses, like Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, who has been on the road nonstop in support of his wife, Vice President Harris.
Historians tell us that while Melania’s absence is unusual, it’s not unprecedented. Katherine A. S. Sibley, who’s a history professor at Saint Joseph’s University, says that, like Melania, First Lady Bess Truman was a very private person who was forced to live as a very public one.
“As Bess Truman once said, a woman’s place in public was ‘to sit beside her husband, be silent, and be sure her hat is on straight,” Sibley tells Katie Couric Media. “Like Melania, she did not want to be in the public eye at all.”
So, what has Melania been up to all this time? She began the year grieving the death of her 78-year-old mother, Amalija Knavs, whom she commemorated as being “a ray of light in the darkest of days.” And she was heavily involved in looking at colleges for her 18-year-old son, Barron, who recently enrolled at New York University, sources told PEOPLE.
On top of focusing on family, she has also been working on her upcoming memoir, Melania, which is set to be released on Oct. 8. As part of a promotional push for the book’s release, she’s reemerged in a series of fascinating videos on social media. In a Sept. 5 clip, for example, Melania says she feels “a responsibility to clarify the facts,” and in another one posted five days later, she implies that the July assassination attempt on Donald might’ve been a conspiracy. What she leaves out is whether her new book uncovers any of this “truth.” (But these clips have accomplished her goal of drumming up anticipation for the memoir, including her headline-grabbing comments about the nude modeling she’s done in the past.)
With only a few weeks until the release date, she hasn’t yet done any traditional press about the book, but some believe this stems from her distrust of the media. “In releasing these videos, Melania’s trying to control her public image in a way that cuts the media largely out of the picture,” says Katherine Jellison, a history professor at the University of Ohio. “And that probably stems from this idea that she hasn’t been treated fairly in the past.”
The Trumps have long claimed that the media is against them — in 2022, Melania made headlines for calling Vogue “biased” for not putting her on its cover, as the influential fashion magazine did with other first ladies, like Jill Biden, Michelle Obama, and Hillary Clinton. Still, the historians we spoke with beg to differ: “I think the media has tried to treat Melania Trump in a fair and balanced way, but she’s a slippery and enigmatic figure,” says Jellison.
“Her public appearances are increasingly rare, and she makes relatively few comments intended for public consumption,” she adds. “When she’s absent from the public scene, members of the media often speculate on her motives and activities rather than report on what she is actually doing because they simply don’t know.”
Melania’s shadowy presence could explain why there’s so much curiosity and speculation around her self-titled debut, which she calls “deeply personal.” It may very well end up unearthing some exciting truths we haven’t heard before — or it could be simply a statement to her critics.
“Melania is boosting an image of herself as a strong woman in charge of her own life and destiny,” Jellison concludes. “In doing so, she challenges some of the media caricatures of her and upends the notion that she is under her husband’s thumb.”
