Melania Trump is reportedly ignoring her husband's second impeachment trial, spending a lot of time at the spa and sometimes seethes over the recognition her successor Jill Biden is receiving for her work.
"She goes to the spa, has lunch, goes to the spa (again), and has dinner with Donald on the patio. Rinse and repeat. Every day," a source close to Ms Trump told CNN.
She checks in on the trial but has almost entirely checked out of the DC mindset. In the evenings, Ms Trump can often be seen having dinner with her parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, who also stay at Mar-A-Lago for large parts of the year.
The Knavs became American citizens in August 2018 after an immigration process lasting years, despite former President Trump's constant criticism of "chain migration," and calls for new legislation stopping Americans from sponsoring relatives to come to America, The Washington Post reported.
The former first lady's schedule is "pretty much the same as it was before (she was first lady) or even when she would come down during vacations," a source told CNN about Ms Trump's activities at Mar-A-Lago.
Feeling she was in an impossible predicament as to whether to speak out after the insurrection on 6 January, Ms Trump, in the end, chose to stay silent.
Read more: Follow live updates on Mr Trump’s second impeachment trial
A former White House official said: "Once (the insurrection) happened, she knew there was nothing to gain for her by speaking out or doing something... so she didn't do anything."
Having left DC with one of the worst approval ratings for any modern first lady, Ms Trump has sometimes been "bitter and chilly" towards the former president, troubled that his attempts to overturn the election may have tarnished her public image.
Annoyed at the attention given to her successor, Ms Trump has noticed how Jill Biden started her term as first lady in the completely opposite way to Ms Trump by immediately moving into the White House, building up a significant staff and appearing in various media outlets with and without President Biden, expressing sympathy for parents dealing with homeschooling their children during the pandemic and being featured in a televised message before the Super Bowl.
Despite being frustrated by Jill Biden's early prominence in public life, Ms Trump turned down numerous comparable offers from national outlets when she was first lady. She never did an interview with a national outlet during her time as first lady.
A senior advisor to Ms Trump during the first few months of her tenure, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff told CNN that "Donald was more upset about Melania not getting magazine covers than Melania was".
Laura Bush was featured on six covers, Michelle Obama made it on to more than a dozen.
Ms Wolkoff said: "Melania intentionally didn't do press as a defence mechanism. She and I would always discuss this reasoning and that's why everything was choreographed or emailed, or be 'approved' quotes or statements that I would often write."
The former first lady is now second-guessing her very private media strategy, blaming former staffers, magazine editors, and companies who didn't work with her because of Mr Trump's inflammatory behaviour, CNN writes.
Another source told CNN that it was "unfair" but "typical" of Ms Trump "to blame everyone else".
"Everyone knows Melania Trump does what she wants when she wants, and not one staffer on her team could have done anything to change that,” the source said.
yahoo.com
She'll be filing for divorce before year's end.
heh
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