There’s a whole new Melania Trump scandal
There’s a new Melania Trump scandal, and this one’s not about Stormy Daniels or anything that Donald Trump did. For the past few weeks, Donald has had a “Melania problem” that was entirely of his making. He cheated on her, she and the whole world found out, and she found a number of ways to publicly embarrass him over it. Now the latest Melania scandal is all about her, and more specifically, her parents.
It’s long been established that Melania Trump, at least by her husband’s stated definition, is an illegal immigrant. She came to the United States and began working without a proper visa, meaning that her residency here and her subsequent citizenship are invalid. She’s never committed any crimes or done anything wrong since she’s been here (apart from marrying Donald, a known career criminal), so most Americans would conclude that she has every right to remain in the country.
But under Donald’s immigration policies, Melania would be rounded up and deported. It’s long been a persistent, if under-the-radar, problem for Donald whenever he’s tried to push his racist policies. Now there’s a whole new problem, and one that’s been hiding in plain sight all along. No one involved is willing to talk about how Melania’s parents got here (link), and now it’s mushrooming into a scandal of its own.
Are Melania Trump’s parents here on some kind of visa? If so, is it the proper kind of visa, or are they technically illegal immigrants like their daughter is? Have their visas expired? Spokespeople for Melania and the White House are refusing to say, which suggests that something isn’t on the up and up. Again, the average American really wouldn’t care how Melania’s parents got here, as long as they’re not out committing crimes. But for racist anti-immigration fanatic Donald Trump, this is very much indeed a scandal.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report