This First Lady’s treatment by the mainstream press is, in my humble opinion, shameful. When Melania Trump isn’t ignored completely, she’s mostly belittled, criticized, or undermined.
Contrast that to the coverage Michelle Obama got from the press as First Lady, and to this day for that matter. It was, and is, glowing, fawning, really over the top in its adulation. Cover after cover of the so-called “women’s magazines” – Michelle was there. And the articles were all overwhelmingly positive. Compare that to Melania Trump. She’s missing from the vast majority of those covers, despite the fact that she actually was a model.
Why is this? Well, it’s really pretty obvious. Barack Obama. Donald Trump. The mainstream press loved (still loves) one. And hates the other.
But has the press’s coverage of Melania really been all that negative? Well, let’s look at some examples. Melania has spent considerable time visiting service members, children’s hospitals, immigration facilities, newborn intensive care units, and drug abuse treatment centers. She’s participated in Toys for Tots drives. She’s accompanied her husband in welcoming many foreign heads of state to the White House. She has visited hurricane devastated areas along with the President, and supported recovery efforts there. She’s attended state funerals. Comforted the families of mass shooting events, and thanked in person our first responders. And she’s been the principle mover behind an effort to get young people to be more civil to each other, especially online, where incivility and bullying is rampant.
And what has the mainstream press coverage of her efforts been? Either they’ve ignored her good works altogether, or they’ve focused on stupid things – trivial things. They criticize her clothes, her shoes, sometimes even her accent. Rather than commend her for trying to get kids to be more civil to each other online, they take the opportunity to criticize her for her husband’s alleged Twitter “bullying.”
Maybe it’s just a Republican vs Democrat thing. Most popular Democratic President of my time would have to be JFK – Camelot and all that. Not only did the press love Jack Kennedy, but they adored his wife, Jacqueline. They were the coolest couple ever (in the eyes of the press) and could do no wrong. The closest thing to the coverage of Jacqueline Kennedy would probably be that of Lady Di.
The most popular Republican president of my time would have to be Ronald Reagan. However, no matter what President Reagan accomplished, the press coverage of his wife, Nancy, was almost uniformly negative. Either she spent way too much on the White House china, or she consulted a wacky astrologer, or her children weren’t supposedly raised right. She never got a break.
So my advice to Melania would be this. Just keep doing what you’re doing. You’re a great First Lady. You’re obviously smart (speaks 6 languages.) Don’t let the sniping by the usual suspects distract you, or get you down. Just continue to do your best for your family and the American people. And the rest will take care of itself.