Are Melania and Ivanka trying to take each other down as Donald Trump circles the drain?

| 12:30 am EST December 22, 2020
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Melania Trump has been called everything from “victim” to “co-conspirator” in her role as Donald Trump’s First Lady. To be brief, her reputation hasn’t weathered well over the past four years. Personally, I’ve not thought much of Melania. For the most part, I’ve brushed off the news about her because I never thought there was much to glean from the situation in Washington based on her behavior. But things might be a bit different now.

The Independent reports that Melania’s seemingly longstanding “feud” with Ivanka has left Melania to call Ivanka and Jared “snakes.” If this report is accurate, it’s interesting to me for a few reasons. First, what would turn Melania and Ivanka against each other in the first place? Very generally, one would think that they would actually have a lot to gain by cooperating with one another (e.g., making sure the Trump machine is managed well). But more specifically, what would cause Melania to call Ivanka and Jared “snakes?”

Calling Ivanka and Jared “snakes” suggests a few things. Let’s address the obvious one first: Melania thinks of Ivanka and Jared as traitors, or at least connivers in some capacity. But that begs asking “Whom have they betrayed?” Have they betrayed Donald? The Trump machine more generally? Melania specifically? And of course, how have they betrayed whomever they betrayed?

What I find interesting is that Melania would say something like this knowing full well that there would be a good chance of it leaking through Trump’s famously leaky White House. While I’m not intimating she meant this to be some kind of strategic ploy, I do wonder if she’s not the kind of person many of us have thought she is (which is to say, a ride-or-die Trump lackey). I wonder instead whether she’s as keen on Trump leaving office as we are. I wonder this because, in my view, it seems most likely that Ivanka and Jared would have sold out Melania in some way, rather than Trump himself (whom Ivanka apparently still likes and whom Jared practically worships). On that basis, it would mean that Ivanka and Jared perceived Melania as a threat or an “outsider.” But then what did Melania do? We can only dream that she sold out Trump in some way, but I honestly doubt that’s what happened.

Whatever the case, this is something to watch in my opinion. If this betokens any sort of turmoil at the heart of Trump world, who knows what it’ll turn into once they lose the protective veil of the White House in a few weeks.