Translated material
Silent protest of Melania Trump
How the press discusses every step of the first lady of the United States after news of Trump's connection with porn actress
Storm warning
On January 12, The Wall Street Journal said that US President Donald Trump paid 130 thousand dollars for silence of the pornstar Stephanie Clifford, known under the pseudonym Stormy Daniels. According to the publication, Trump and Daniels had a connection in 2006 - that is, a year and a half after the wedding of Donald and Melania and four months after the birth of their son Barron. The publication claimed that the agreement on silence with Daniels was signed a month before the US presidential election in 2016.
A week later, on January 19, Intouch magazine published an interview with Daniels in 2011, where the actress talked in detail about her acquaintance, relationship and sex with Donald Trump. At the request of the publication, she also went through a lie detector. However, after the publication of an interview in 2018, Stormy Daniels had never clearly denied or confirmed that she had sex with Trump. For example, at the Jimmy Kimmel show, the actress virtuoso left direct questions and joked .
Donald Trump and his representatives categorically deny that the president and Daniels had a connection. The first lady Melania Trump also did not comment on this story in any way - but committed several actions that the American media considered it without saying. Since the end of January, the US public-business and entertainment press has been closely following every step of Melania Trump (including the choice of clothing), trying to see in her actions a protest against the US president, and TV presenters joke about “stormy weather” in the White House.
Spa center instead of an economic forum
Publications on the connection of Trump and Stormy Daniels appeared in the press on the eve of the 13th anniversary of the wedding of the couple of trumps. As reported by The New York Times, Melania Trump was stunned by the news that her husband had paid Daniels for silence, and "became furious." The Fortune business magazine noted that this news “succumbed to the heat” to rumors that Donald and Melania Trump live “each of their own lives” (Michael Wulff wrote about this in the book “Fire and Rage: inside Trump’s White House”, published in January 2018). Be that as it may, since the end of January, the First Lady of the United States defiantly distant from her husband.
On January 23, it became known that Melania Trump canceled her two -day trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, where she was supposed to accompany and support her husband. As CNN reported , this decision was made at the last moment. The press secretary of Melania Trump explained that the reason is in logistics and discrepancy between graphs. However, as the media noted, the first lady did not plan any events that could interfere with her trip to Switzerland.
Instead, the first lady without warning visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington, and then flew to Palm Beach-to Donald Trump, the Mar-A-Lyu resort complex (it also took place in the presidential couple’s wedding), where she spent the whole day in the spa. According to media estimates , the first lady in Florida and back cost taxpayers to 64 thousand dollars.
Many publications were asked: "What is happening?" And in the end, they came to the conclusion that this act is a “subconscious message” to Donald Trump. In a CNN commentary, historian Kate Brower said that Melania Trump’s behavior is atypical for the first lady and contrasted this situation with Clintons: at the height of the impicha Bill and Hillary Clinton, holding hands, flew together - which, as the press wrote then, “promised to be monstrous”.
In addition, journalists noted that Melania Trump did not publish a post in his social networks in honor of the anniversary of their wedding with Donald Trump, and on the anniversary of his inauguration, she not with her husband, but with an unknown military man. “It was a year full of wonderful moments. I was lucky to meet many interesting people in our country and in the world! ” - wrote Melania Trump. According to the American human rights activist and publicist Jill Filipovich, the first lady may play according to the rules of her husband - but this does not mean that she considers it necessary to take his side and act as a "quiet deceived wife."
However, on January 26, the press secretary of Melania Trump called similar assumptions of the Fake-NEC press and emphasized that the president’s wife was focused on her family and the role of the first lady.
White suit
On January 30, Donald Trump played in Congress with his first message “On the situation of the country”. “Americans are usually interested in that the first lady will put on this performance, how she will welcome the audience and whom she will invite to sit nearby. But this time everyone was worried about whether she would appear at all, ” wrote The New York Times.
Melania Trump appeared at the event, but again violating the tradition. For the first time in the history of the United States, the president and first ladies arrived in Congress on different cars, creating, as Vox wrote , an unexpected additional drama. As Melania Trump herself explained, she preferred to go to her husband’s performance in the company of guests of the ceremony - "American heroes who served the Fatherland." She was welcomed with a standing applause. However, she defiantly did not stand during the applause Donald Trump - after his words about what important role the family plays in America.
The media paid special attention to the outfit of Melania Trump. The wife of the US president chose a white Dior's white trouser suit. The ABC News channelnoted that this costume could be “greeting” to white outfits of suffrazhikov or the branded white costume of Trump's rival in the presidential election Hillary Clinton. Vanity Fair magazine wrote that the costume of the first lady perhaps referred to last year’s event: on March 1, 2017, the participants of the Democratic Party unanimously came to a meeting of the congress in white - in protest against Mizoginia Donald Trump.
The New York Magazine did not miss the expression on the face of the first lady during her husband's performance. “Thank you for the honest expression, melania. We see everything, ”the publication wrote. And on the television show, Stephen Kolbert played a whole sketch about the secret feminist signs of the first lady: the actress depicting melania, by chance, mentions the hashtag #Metoo, the name of the Timeʼs Up movement, and puts on the pink hat - the symbol of the female march.
On February 3, Donald and Melania Trump, together with his son Barron, flew to the weekend in Mar-A-Lala. The press pointed out both the “dramatic” outfit (blue with a red cloak) of the first lady and her unwillingness to talk with journalists - and probably with her husband. The British edition of The Independent wrote that the position of the First Lady of the United States (which is supposedly not close to either her husband or spouses of the former heads of the state) and her “silent protest” will probably be able to make Melania Trump as a sign and inspirational figure.
Olga Strachovskaya