The first lady is expected to deliver a high-profile Republican National Conference speech, and the newly renovated space – to be a reflection of Trump’s favorite décor palette: creams, soft pastels, and a hint of luxury – may just be where she’s. provides it from, one person with knowledge of convention discussions tells CNN, and notes that it is on a list of options.
In 2016, according to the campaign sources at the time, Trump evaded the assistance of more experienced speechwriters and worked with a staff member at the Trump Organization who had some experience writing ghostwrite from her husband’s books.
This time, the first lady is back, choosing not to use a professional speechwriting team for her convention address, instead relying on her small staff circle, according to a Republican strategist who speaks anonymously to maintain working relationships within the White House.
“I do not want to get the first lady ahead, but details are in the works,” First Lady chief of staff Stephanie Grisham told CNN when asked for confirmation of plans for Trump’s RNC appearance, including her location and the status of their written comments.
Anita McBride, former chief of staff for First Lady Laura Bush, said the first lady should speak from the heart, if she can, about private moments that humanize the president.
“That was a turning point in 2004 for President Bush, when Mrs. Bush gave her speech at the convention and talked about seeing (Bush) experience the personal struggle over the decision to go to war, and see how “he walked the grounds in deep thought. this intensely complicated time in America,” she said. “At that moment, she made him more human and gave people a different view, if they were willing to listen. Mrs. Trump could have that influence, too.”
McBride added that Melania Trump’s speech should also focus on the work she has already done.
“Now she has to see the experience of the impact she can have as a first lady,” she said.
Lie low
Despite the planned speech on high-profile convention, Melania Trump is not expected that this campaign cycle will be much of a surrogate for her husband – even if he continues with his ham-fisted approach of catching up with suburban White women with whom his wife can do something professionally. Her aversion to child pornography is something that has frustrated staff in the president’s reelection team, says one person who worked closely with the Trumps in 2016.
Yet with an election that is difficult, the country would be in the throes of a pandemic and poll numbers indicating a tight presidential race, now, three months from election day, are normally considered an all- hands-on deck time for a board trying to preserve the White House, especially with a president capable of venturing wildly off-topic at any given moment.
But right now, Melania Trump is in Bedminster, New Jersey, where the Trumps have long held a private home, in addition to the golf club which is for members only. She spent several days in Manhattan last week, taking meetings and appointments, a source with knowledge of her trip told CNN, but for the most part, Trump has been out of sight. It’s been almost three weeks since she was seen at a public event.
Traditionally, this would be the time for a first lady to roll up proverbial sleeves and step in to attend a few gatherings, as high-dollar donors greet, or massage the sensibilities of moderate voters. But nothing we have seen of Trump indicates that it is traditional.
“Mrs. Trump has shown us time and time again that she does this role in her own way, with her timing, and generally on her terms,” McBride said. “For her not to hit the buses, to raise voices, that’s not only unusual, considering what we learned about her as a first lady. But if she wants to be heard, she’s effective.”
No campaign plans
Short of the convention address, there is not much else on Trump’s radar that directly applies to assisting her husband’s re-election. She was not a big presence on the 2016 campaign track, though – Trump made less than 10 solo appearances and less in the way of speeches.
This time – an election cycle destroyed by the coronavirus pandemic that has already affected large crowds – the first lady has no concrete plans to attend events, talk to lenders, nor try to get voters in a tangible way , according to a trusted source with the first lady’s itinerary. Her calendar for the next several weeks is open.
Some of that decision could be related to Covid-19 and an awareness of the optics of travel and the general discouragement of crowds by health officials. Yet one wonders if the first lady, even in a Covid-free world, would make the long, hard blow over the land that other more experienced political couples of incomes have in the past.
Trump’s is a very different campaign gamebook than its predecessors. Michelle Obama, who is supposed to speak, just Monday night at the Democratic convention in support of Joe Biden, was known in 2008 as such a powerful orator for her husband’s name, her nickname being “the closer.”
Laura Bush was also crucial to the reelection of George W. Bush.
“In the last run-up to the 2004 campaign, Mrs. Bush had a completely separate campaign operation,” said a former Bush administration official who worked closely with the former first lady, noting the differences between her and Trump’s plan. . “She had her own campaign press secretary, her own campaign progress team – on the whole, maybe some 20 employees, some paid, some volunteers, to coordinate her actions and plan only for campaign.”
The influence of the first lady
The reason most first ladies are a positive and influential force on the track is typically because they have a visual set for the relationship with their partner. What the first lady does, and why, is for most modern women in the role of first lady a direct reflection of the closeness she has with the president.
For the Trumps, that idea feels more complicated, especially considering the independent approach Melania Trump has taken in the White House, often public-sounding beliefs and values that do not align with those of the president.
“It was a common understanding for everyone who worked in the Bush White House that he was just getting better when Mrs. Bush was with him,” the former Bush official said. “We all knew he was more relaxed when she was there, and that was because her relationship was in sync. And she could stir emotions with her presence and her speeches that he was having trouble getting over. “
President Donald Trump also tends to appear comfortable in public moments when he is accompanied by the first lady. There have been more exposures of mutual camaraderie in this last half of Trump’s presidency than the first, marked by Melania Trump’s remaining in New York at the beginning of her term, and months of headlines about the supposedly faithful infidelity of the President.
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