‘Secretly Relieved’: What Will Melania Trump Do Next?

Melania Trump has been quiet for the past week as her adoptive country decided whether her family would remain in the White House for another four years.

Have you avoided being the center of attention due to the outgoing US president’s temper tantrums over the election outcome that caused Joe Biden to become president-elect, or are you quietly planning your next move, which could be very different from Donald Trump?

No one could blame Melania for being relieved to say goodbye to her largely undefined, unpaid, and high-pressure job as First Lady.

“I think Melania will probably be secretly relieved. This is not what she signed up for,” said Kate Andersen Brower, a journalist and author of First Women, a book on presidential couples.

So what will Melania’s next move be? Will you follow other First Ladies and continue to write a book that tells it all, undertake worthwhile projects, help your husband navigate his new endeavors (which experts say is the least unlikely), or will you simply focus on your role as a devoted mother? and will he live? life as a lady of leisure?

You certainly have many options, particularly about where the family might move and whether you will choose to live with your son Barron separately from your husband.

There is speculation about whether Melania and Barron will return to New York so that he can return to his old private school in Manhattan, or stay in Washington while finishing high school in Maryland, not far from the White House.

The Obamas stayed in Washington so their two daughters could finish their studies at their private school.

After January 21, Melania could return to the Trump Tower penthouse in New York City, the Mar-a-Lago Estate in Florida, or head to the Seven Springs Estate in Westchester and Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster.

Experts say it could be Florida because he voted in person in Palm Beach County, registered as the Trumps’ official residence.

Ohio University historian Katherine Jellison told USA Today that she assumed Mrs. Trump would return to Florida.

“Or maybe you can convince your husband to return to New York as his official residence and continue the kind of life he led before the White House,” she said.

Anita McBride, who heads the Legacies of America First Ladies Initiative at American University and was former First Lady Laura Bush’s chief of staff, said she thought Melania would focus on her family and son, helping him manage the transition.

Meanwhile, he said he will prepare for the family’s final Christmas at the White House.

McBride said losing the election comes with “a certain disappointment at not having this option (of being in the White House) again after working so hard to achieve it.”

“You go through the stages of a loss because it’s a loss,” he told USA Today.

She doesn’t predict that none of the Trumps will stay in Washington.

Other experts do not believe that Melania actively undertakes worthwhile initiatives because she was never a great activist before.

They point out how her First Lady Be Best initiative, which aimed to “help children” by fighting online bullying and opioid abuse, never really resonated with people.

Andersen Brower believes Melania is going to “go back to that lady-who-luncheon lifestyle.”

“Which is totally his right to do, but if he wrote a book he could make a lot of money,” he said.

“If he wrote a book with no restrictions, like Nancy Reagan’s memoir My Turn, it would do very well for him. And he could, given the way he (sometimes) speaks so frankly.”