Classy and Naught

Let’s catch up with Melania Trump, who has spent less than 13% of her time in the White House since January 20, 2025. Rather she resides in personal privacy at Mar-a-Lago or in New York. At the White House traditional egg roll in 2025 — that’s coming up soon in 2026 — Melania was present, she is appropriately on Trump’s arm — part of the Presidential outfit — at White House dinners/state events.

Recently Jeff Bezos funded to the tune of $75 million “Melania: Twenty Days to History,” a documentary about Melania readying for the 2025 inauguration. The cast is prominently Melania, voice overs, with a few others silently or minimally on camera (Baron, Trump, her father, her dress designer). The documentary cost $40 million to produce, $35 million to market, for which Melania received $28 million, 70% of the production costs.How do those emolument clauses work?

The East Wing — where, since Eleanor Roosevelt’s reign, First Ladies have done their work — advanced social agendas, been advocates for kids, the elderly, women, minorities, health, education, human rights — is gapingly demolished.

Rosalyn Carter, in 1977, appointed a First Lady Chief of Staff; Rosalyn herself attended Cabinet meetings. From Lady Bird on, the First Lady staffs had been 15 +: using the First Lady’s platform for social issues via speeches, visits, organizing. Melania’s staff dropped to less than a dozen in T101. Now in T202, Melania’s staff is five. With the East Wing demolished there is no First Lady’s office, no place, no space and Be Best, Melania’s anti-cyberbullying initiative commenced in T101, is invisible, silent, oddly tuned with Trump’s online bully persona.

Woodrow Wilson’s stroke in 1919 put his second wife Edith in immense control of the Oval Office — some terming it “The Secret Presidency.” Then with Franklin Roosevelt’s election in 1932, Eleanor Roosevelt commenced her live long impact on the Presidency, the war, the country, rising to U.S. U.N. Delegate 1945 — 1953. Eleanor was prominent nationally and internationally for decades; Truman called her “the First Lady of the world” for her extended, substantial contribution to human rights.

In 1961, John Kennedy brought youth, sterling speech “ask not what your country can do for you, but you can do for your country”, a Russia crisis with Khrushchev and stunning Class to his presidency. Jackie Kennedy with her classy attire, her French (a polyglot fluent in French, Spanish and Italian), her cultural predilection all precipitated on their Paris visit to Kennedy’s “I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris and I have enjoyed it.”

Jackie’s famed pillbox hat, small, centered atop her head, was diametrically opposed to Melania’s “boater” hat worn at the 2025 inauguration. Melania’s selection was seemingly a shield for her eyes, face from the people and, planned or not, a block for a Trump attempted kiss.

In 1962, Jaqueline Kennedy starred in CBS’S A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy that was highly watched TV with 80 million, earning Jacqueline an honorary Emmy.This video showed the American people the renovated White House state rooms, under Jacqueline’s lead, with authentic, period-accurate furnishings — museum quality. The White House Historical Society, established in 1961, remains, thus far, a private, non-profit to protect, preserve and provide public access to the Executive Mansion.

First Ladies Johnson, Reagan, the Bushes, Clinton, Obama and Biden have all been visibly active using their platforms for social advancement — Clinton becoming an elected Senator, Secretary of State, and Presidential candidate. The East Wing did not make them prominent, influential, or active but it was there, acknowledged White House space. Its vacancy is significant.

The woman, Melania, wore a Zara jacket with huge lettering: “I Really Don’t Care, Do U?” on the back for her 2018 trip to visit a Texas detention center for immigrant children. Prominent in her recent in-theatre documentary are Melania’s ever present, ever-a-foot 5-inch stiletto heels -seemingly her personal symbol. Perhaps the elimination of the First Lady is being provoked by more than the demolishment of the East wing.

Kathy Herald-Marlowe lives in Sharon.