What did Melania Trump just do?
There’s an old joke that goes, “What’s the difference between ignorance and indifference? I don’t know and I don’t care.” I think of this joke when I see First Lady Melania Trump engage in her tired antics where she tries to tell us not to care about her husband’s latest scandals yet plays dumb as to what she is really doing.
Melania is married to a boorish demagogue who enjoys using Twitter to insult anyone who dares to disagree with him. Yet she launched her Be Best campaign that, of all things, aims to help children with “avoiding negative social media interaction.” Then, when Melania took the campaign on the road to visit a children’s shelter in McAllen, Texas, she made sure to wear a jacket that read, “I really don’t care. Do U?” Melania left it to a spokesperson to tell confused reporters that there was supposedly “no hidden message” in her choice of clothing that day.
Now Melania has done it again. During Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s live testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee this morning, Melania kept quiet until 11:55 a.m. At that point, Chairman Jerrold Nadler had announced that the hearing was running a little over, that there were some more Democrats slated to speak, but that we just finished hearing from all the Republicans. That is when Melania tweeted: “#Christmas planning has begun in the East Wing at the @WhiteHouse. I’m looking forward to sharing our final vision for this unique tradition in the coming months.”
The aloofness and curious timing of this tweet, which included photos showing holiday preparations, is no doubt Melania’s passive-aggressive way of telling us that she does not care about the Mueller hearing and that we should not care either. Instead, Melania is trying to telegraph the message that Trump, who apparently exemplifies traditional Christian values, plans to remain in the White House for the long haul. But Americans, who are capable of keeping their own list of who’s naughty and nice, will ultimately decide when Trump leaves office.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month