Melania Trump has been calm over the past week as her adopting country decides if her family will stay in the White House for another four years.
Has she shunned the limelight due to the outgoing US president’s tantrums over the election result that led to Joe Biden’s election, or is she quietly planning her next move, which may be very different from Donald Trump?
Nobody can blame Melania for feeling relieved to bid farewell to her largely indeterminate, unpaid, and high-pressure job as First Lady.
“I think Melania will probably rest a secret,” said Kate Anderson Brewer, journalist and author of “This Is Not What You’ve Been In About” The first womenIt is a book about co-presidents.
So what’s next for Melania? Will she follow other First Ladies and keep writing a book that says it all, take on worthwhile projects, help her husband navigate his new endeavors (which experts say are the least likely) or simply focus on her role as a devoted mother and living life as a lady of entertainment?
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She definitely has many options – especially regarding where the family might move and whether she would choose to live with Son Barron separately from her husband.
Speculation swirls about whether Melania and Barron will return to New York so he can return to his former private school in Manhattan, or stay in Washington while he finishes high school in Maryland, close to the White House.
The Obama family stayed in Washington until their daughters finished their private school.
After January 21, Melania could return to the Trump Tower apartment in New York City, the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, or head to the Seven Springs property in Westchester and Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster.
Experts say it may be Florida because it personally voted in Palm Beach County – registered as Trump’s official residence.
Said historian Kathryn Gilleson of the University of Ohio USA Today I assumed Mrs. Trump would return to Florida.
“Or maybe she will be able to persuade her husband to return to New York as their official residence – and to continue the life she was leading before the White House,” she said.
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Anita McBride, who directs the American University’s First Ladies Legacy Initiative and former first lady Laura Bush, said she believes Melania will focus on her family and her son, helping him manage the transition.
Meanwhile, she said she was preparing for the family’s last Christmas at the White House.
McBride said that the election loss comes with “a certain disappointment that there is no such option (to be in the White House) again after serious work for it.”
She said, “You go through the stages of loss because it is a loss.” USA Today.
She does not expect any of the Trump family to stay in Washington.
Other experts don’t think Melania will actively pursue worthwhile initiatives because she hasn’t been so active before.
They point out that the first lady’s initiative, Be Best, which was aimed at “helping children” by combating cyberbullying and opioid abuse, hadn’t really resonated with people anyway.
Andersen Brewer believes Melania “will return to the lifestyle of the lady eating lunch”.
She said, “This is absolutely her right, but if she writes a book, she can make a lot of money.”
If you write an unblocked book, like Nancy Reagan Cyclic Diary, that would be very good. And you might, by looking at the way you talk (sometimes) very frankly. “
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