Donald Trump’s real Melania problem
Donald Trump is helplessly watching his closest associates being arrested and/or flipping on him, even as he frantically tries to find a way to salvage his comically failing Kim Jong-UN stunt in the hope it’ll magically keep him out of prison. Even as he bets his freedom on the hope of getting thrown a bone by an unstable lunatic in North Korea who hates him, he’s stuck dealing with the rapid collapse of his marriage. Trump’s real Melania problem isn’t simply that she hates him, or even that she’s vanished.
We don’t know where Melania Trump is. We don’t know why she’s completely disappeared from public view over the past two weeks, after having mysteriously entered a hospital under highly suspicious circumstances. We don’t know where she is, and we don’t know why. But we do know this: Melania’s approval ratings have been on the rise since Donald’s porn star affairs came to the forefront – and Melania can only gain that popularity at the expense of her husband’s popularity.
Donald Trump doesn’t seem to understand what a liability this has become in terms of his survival in office. All of his failed initiatives and criminal scandals are now being looked upon by the public through the lens of a guy who was such a monster to his wife, she’s ended up going off the grid entirely. Nor does Trump seem to have any idea how to handle this. In the past two weeks he’s posted as many tweets about Hope Hicks as he has about Melania – and of course he famously referred to her as “Melanie” in the process.
The longer Melania Trump remains missing in action, the more sympathy she gains, and the more Donald Trump takes the blame for whatever has gone so wrong here. Instead, Trump is busy tweeting about how “beautiful” Hope Hicks is, reminding us that he might actually be the most tone-deaf person on earth. Trump has no idea what to do with his Melania problem.
