She had disappeared, gone underground, perhaps even hurt, in any case simply gone. But after the assassination attempt on her husband, Melania Trump has now spoken out. What her return could mean for the US election campaign.
The list of places Melania Trump has not been in recent weeks and months is long. In her husband Donald Trump’s election campaign year, she is missing almost everywhere you would normally expect to see her.
There is the upcoming Republican National Convention, at which she is not listed as a speaker. There is Donald Trump’s 78th birthday, which she did not attend. There is the court case in Manhattan in June about Donald Trump’s affair with Stormy Daniels, which she understandably did not attend. In the end, there is a year of almost complete public absence.
Melania Trump has hardly been seen in public recently
Even during Donald Trump’s time in office, Melania Trump was not a First Lady who sought the spotlight. Her public and seemingly cold appearances were met with derision and mockery. The legendary act of slapping away her husband Donald Trump’s hand when he tried to grab hers. But in recent months, the inconspicuous woman has become completely invisible.
After assassination attempt: Melania Trump returns
Until now, until the assassination attempt on her husband. Will she play a role in the election campaign after all, and if so, what will it be?
It was at least an astonishingly warm-hearted statement that Melania Trump released to the world on Sunday after her husband was shot. “When I saw the bullet hit my husband, Donald, I realized that my life and the life of Barron (their son, editor’s note) was on the verge of destructive change,” she wrote.
The assassin was a “monster” who tried to “extinguish Donald’s passion – his laughter, his ingenuity, his love of music and his inspiration (…) Donald, the generous and caring man with whom I went through the best and the worst of times.” Does a marriage in ruins sound like the media recently speculated?
And almost more notably, Melania Trump had a political message too. “Let us remember that when the time comes to look beyond left and right, beyond red and blue, we all come from families who have fought passionately for a better life for as long as we are here in this earthly world. The dawn is here. Let us come together again. Now.”
Trumps call for unity
The call for unity is similar to what Donald Trump said after the assassination. One might find this cynical coming from the Trumps, but the staging is effective.
“Melania knows what she’s doing and does what she wants,” wrote Mary Jordan, Washington Post editor and author of “The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump,” this week. “She’s smart because she knows she’ll be better listened to if she rarely speaks. And if she stays in the dark, she’ll attract more attention when she steps into the spotlight,” she said.
Now she has stepped out of the shadows and people are talking about her again. That happened once before, in 2016. During the election campaign, she sat down for one of her rare TV interviews to maneuver her husband out of the crossfire. The scandal surrounding Donald Trump’s “Grab ’em by the pussy” remark was at its peak when Melania Trump told the world that it was harmless “locker room talk” between men. Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, testified this year that the whole thing was Melania’s idea. How the election ended is well known.
Perhaps this time too, she will play a decisive role in the election campaign.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
