At least everyone can agree that Melania Trump’s hat didn’t become the stand-out star of the presidential inauguration by accident.
Fashion experts and biographers agreed that the former model and well-known fashion icon, a woman who clearly puts great thought into her clothing choices, wore the stylish yet somewhat severe navy headwear to make a strong statement.
What that statement was, however, was subject to wide interpretation.
Critics were swift to point out that when Donald Trump struggled to navigate the wide brim in order to kiss his First Lady, it seemed as though she had deliberately chosen it to keep him at a distance.
The hat’s designer, renowned hat maker Eric Javits, added fuel to the speculation by mentioning that historically, a wide brim had been used to establish a woman’s personal space, dating back to the Victorian era. The broad brim of this particular hat indeed cast a significant portion of her face in shadow.
For those who continue to insist that Mrs Trump is not only trapped in a loveless marriage but disagrees fundamentally with her husband’s career, this was clear proof that she was concealing her emotions and distancing herself from the event.
Others who claim to know Melania better, however, countered that the hat signified something entirely different – namely a new-found self-confidence.Â
Mrs Trump wore a far more feminine and crowd-pleasing pale blue Ralph Lauren outfit for the 2017 inauguration. This time, said people like her biographer Kate Bennett, the look was far more assured. Mrs Trump didn’t feel she needed to please anyone.
When Donald Trump repeatedly experienced difficulty navigating the hat’s wide brim to plant a kiss on his First Lady’s face, his critics were quick to suggest that she’d intentionally worn it to stop him from coming anywhere near her.Â
Mrs Trump wore a far more feminine and crowd-pleasing pale blue Ralph Lauren outfit for the 2017 inauguration.
In fact, having just celebrated their twentieth wedding anniversary on Wednesday, the truth, say those in the know, is that the couple understands each other better than ever.
‘He knows that his wife has a look and he’s not going to mess with it,’ Bennett explained of Trump’s decision in the Capitol to blow Melania an air kiss after an earlier attempt to get past that brim.
On Wednesday, the president posted to his social media accounts – both personal and now-official – recognizing the couple’s china anniversary, writing: ‘Celebrating 20 years with my beautiful wife and our incredible First Lady, Melania. You’re an extraordinary wife and a wonderful mother.’ And Trump also shared pictures of the smiling couple at their $2.5 million wedding, held on January 22, 2005, at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea near Mar-a-Lago.
Certainly, those still convinced that Melania’s hat was a metaphor for the dark heart of the Trump marriage should have watched other moments on the inauguration day and they would have seen evidence that the Trumps hardly seem estranged.
For instance, as the couple waved off Joe and Jill Biden on their helicopter ride out of Washington, it was 54-year-old Melania – notorious for being filmed swatting Donald away when he’s tried to hold hands – who reached out and took her husband’s hand.
And if Melania’s hat were a point of contention, neither Donald nor the First Lady let on. The President joked to supporters after sending off the Bidens: ‘We went out to the helicopter just prior to this and said goodbye as custom, and the wind is blowing like crazy, and with the hat that she’s wearing, she almost blew away, We almost lost her. She was being elevated off the ground.’
Melania looked on – smiling serenely.
Later, at the Commander-in-Chief ball, they exchanged a joke on the dancefloor and her face was again wreathed in smiles as she watched her husband use a saber to cut a celebratory cake. After Donald finished doing that, Melania even joined him for a bit of unscheduled dancing to the Village People’s YMCA.
Far from looking like a woman hating every second of it, she appeared to be letting her hair down (in this case literally, too) after a day of trying to live up to the solemnity of the occasion.
The idea that Mrs Trump – who was accused of being one of the most reluctant First Ladies in US history – wants nothing more to do with her husband’s political career has taken a beating of late.
Instead, she has made clear that she is more than ready to be First Lady again.
‘I will be in the White House. And when I need to be in New York, I will be in New York. When I need to be in Palm Beach, I will be in Palm Beach,’ she told Fox News in an interview a week before the inauguration. ‘My first priority is to be a mom, to be a first lady, to be a wife. And once you are in on January 20, you serve the country.’
She has made clear that circumstances have changed since her rocky first term as First Lady when she spent the early months of the Trump presidency in New York.
The official reason was that she needed to stay there so that Barron could finish school but it was widely interpreted as a desperate bid to stay away from Washington and her new responsibilities as long as possible. Melania admits in her memoir that she is comfortable with ‘the solitary life’. But, according to Melania biographer Mary Jordan, the real reason was so Mrs Trump could ‘amend her financial arrangement’ with her husband.
As images emerged during the first Trump term of the new First Lady looking miserable (and apparently only smiling when she knew her husband was looking at her), some Democrats – especially women – consoled themselves that she was a reluctant member of his administration.
The ‘Free Melania’ movement was born. It was a deeply patronizing assumption but ever sphinx-like, Mrs Trump didn’t bother correcting it. She has said she doesn’t owe her critics any explanations.
‘I just feel that people didn’t accept me, maybe,’ she told Fox News of her first stint in the White House. ‘They didn’t understand me the way they do now, and I didn’t have much support. Maybe some people, they see me as just the wife of the president, but I’m standing on my own two feet, independent. I have my own thoughts… I don’t always agree with what my husband is saying or doing, and that’s OK.’
Another factor that may improve the mood at the White House, according to Trump insiders, is that Melania won’t have her stepdaughter, Ivanka, breathing down her neck.
There was reportedly no love lost between the pair during the first Trump term and Melania allegedly felt that the ambitious apple of her husband’s eye – who she dubbed ‘the Princess’ – was doing her best to supplant her. Former aides say Mrs Trump responded by doing all she could to foil attempts by Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner, both senior administration aides, to muscle their way into presidential events and trips.
Another factor that may improve the mood at the White House, according to Trump insiders, is that Melania won’t have her stepdaughter, Ivanka, breathing down her neck. (Pictured:Â (L-R) Eric Trump, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. on January 20 2025)
The ‘Free Melania’ movement was born. It was a deeply patronizing assumption but ever sphinx-like, Mrs Trump didn’t bother correcting it.
Melania has said she doesn’t owe her critics any explanations. (She is pictured wearing an ‘I really don’t care’ jacket in 2018).Â
A well-placed source in Team Trump told the Daily Mail that Melania was ‘furious’ when it was suggested that the administration establish an ‘Office of the First Family,’ rather than the traditional First Lady’s office in the White House East Wing, after she remained in New York until the first summer of Trump’s first term.
The insider said, ‘At the end of the day, you can be respectful of the role a stepchild plays, but there is only one First Lady.’ They also noted that Mrs Trump ‘certainly seems to be enjoying herself more than ever’.
It appears that Melania is not the only one in the Trump camp glad to see the back of Javanka – as the First Daughter and husband were known. The Daily Mail hears that someone in Trump’s inner circle was recently overheard joking to campaign staff ‘we can all get a lot more done now that they’re [Ivanka and Jared] gone’.
It may be too much to hope that Mrs Trump will become a modern-day Eleanor Roosevelt in filling the role of First Lady. However, the woman whom Ivanka in turn dubbed ‘The Portrait’ because she spoke so little certainly has a lot more to say now.
