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A new book comparing Melania Trump and Michelle Obama has
brought out predictable slaps against the current first lady from bullies who
seek to attack the president through his family.
Pitting two women against each other just never gets old,
does it?
“Melania & Michelle: First Ladies in a New Era,” by
Tammy R. Vigil, is presented as a mere bipartisan assessment of the public
images of both women.
But it thinly veils its criticism of one and its
admiration of the other. No prizes for guessing who’s who.
Vigil, a Boston academic, notes that Melania “ranks among
the least liked of all modern first ladies, [and her] professional life prepared
her to serve more as a visual adornment.”
The afterword belatedly acknowledges that “pitting the
two women against one another is a troublesome (though common) practice.”
But, hey, if it damages the Trumps, go for it.
The Daily News got the message about who is more
impressive: “Michelle was a polished attorney and huge asset to Barack;
Melania, a top model, is nearly invisible,” goes the headline promoting the
book.
Vigil declares that Melania’s “difficulties” are
exacerbated because she “followed a popular and competent first lady” in
Michelle Obama.
After writing an entire book comparing the two first
ladies — one only halfway through her first term with a wildly hostile media
and the other who completed two terms — Vigil concedes that “directly
contrasting these women is fraught with challenges.”
No kidding.
There is a good reason Melania, 49, might be “aloof” with
the media, and that is
because the attacks on her are more vicious, personal and unrelenting
than any first lady has endured.
Whatever you think of her husband, you can’t say she has
behaved with anything but dignity in her role, despite ugly provocations, which
include attacks on her young son, Barron.
When it comes to the former Ms. Knauss, there are no
boundaries to bullying at all.
Her Christmas decorations have
been pilloried, her accent mocked. She has been depicted as a victim of
domestic abuse.
When she visited
a hospital after the El Paso massacre and cradled an orphaned baby
with a smile, she was slammed for insensitivity.
In
December, visiting Texas, first lady Melania Trump comforted family members
living in a FEMA trailer after their home was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey.
(Photo: White House/ZUMA Press/Newscom)
When she recited the Lord’s Prayer at one of Trump’s rallies, she was branded a “whore.”
Just last week, an entire story ran in Newsweek claiming President Trump had called her to
his side like a dog, with three taps on his thigh.
Clearly, since the president has proven impervious to
abuse, his enemies want to get at him through his wife.
Melania is right to regard herself as one of the “most
bullied people in the world,” as she once told CNN.
There is nothing she can do right in the eyes of media
gatekeepers.
Despite
her exquisite style and promotion of American brands, she has been
snubbed by fashion’s elite. Vogue editor Anna Wintour recently dissed her by
pointedly praising Michelle Obama’s style when asked about Melania.
Does she deserve no respect because of the man she
married?
It doesn’t seem to occur to Melania’s critics that,
rather than being a docile Stepford wife, she might actually share her
husband’s political worldview and encourage his policy positions on such topics
as illegal immigration.
But, unlike Hillary Clinton, whose aggressive foray into
health care policy when she was first lady caused considerable political
fallout for her husband, Melania doesn’t flaunt her influence.
Michelle Obama was a fine first lady and deserves
plaudits for writing a bestselling memoir since. But her school lunch
interventions showed she was an elitist nanny-stater at heart.
Melania has not committed the same errors of arrogant
overreach. She has the humility to understand that she is not the main game.
Such command of ego is the first requirement of a first lady.
Melania is much more than an airhead former model, in any
case.
For starters, she speaks six languages: her native
Slovenian, English, French, Serbian, German and Italian.
She may not have finished college, but she had the street
smarts to escape her tiny town in an impoverished Eastern Bloc country and
survive on her wits in America. She’s no political naïf, either: If your family
has experienced communism firsthand, you have a pretty attuned sense of
politics and ideology.
At the recent G-7 in France, she did not put a foot
wrong.
With the eyes of the world on you, it must be
nerve-wracking to ensure you don’t trip or have a wardrobe malfunction or say
something silly to embarrass your husband and nation. Anyone who has
accompanied a spouse to an important business function would know the pressure.
But Melania always looked lovely and engaged
charmingly with world leaders. She kissed Canada’s Justin Trudeau on the
cheek (and was accused, weirdly, of coming on to him). On an excursion to a
Biarritz beach, she got on so well with French first lady Brigitte Macron, they
wound up holding hands.
The inclusion of spouses makes these international
powwows as much about personal relationships as highfalutin’ policy, and
Melania’s schmoozing ability is an asset that shouldn’t be underrated.
She is a woman whose poise and dignity speaks volumes.
When people say, “Poor Melania,” she says, “Don’t feel
sorry for me. I can handle everything.”
Any honest assessment of her track record would tell you
there’s no doubt she can handle anything. The Trump haters will have to find a
new victim.
