By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-19 18:31:54 | Updated at 2025-01-19 20:37:19
2 hours ago
On the eve of Donald J Trump's inauguration, America's incoming first lady is making one thing perfectly clear: She won't settle for a minor credit in this presidential sequel.
Melania, in fact, appears determined to produce and direct her own starring role.
On Thursday, the notoriously private 57-year-old former model was pictured meeting with Queen Rania of Jordan at the Trumps' Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.
The longtime friends reunited as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was signed – the agreement negotiated, in part, by the president-elect's new regional envoy.
The photo, posted to the Queen's Instagram, showed the two having coffee, and locked in deep conversation. One wonders if a documentary film crew, which has been trailing Melania since November, was able to capture the substance of their chat.
Yes, the former and future first lady has inked a reported $40 million deal with billionaire Jeff Bezos's Amazon to produce a feature-length documentary and follow-up docuseries about her working life, complete with cameos from husband Donald and son Barron.
Melania is an executive producer on the project. It's yet unclear how much of the payday will end up in her purse, but the sum is expected to be substantial.
It's all quite a departure from Melania's first four years in the DC spotlight, when she hosted few public events, granted even fewer media interviews and largely remained out of sight.
On the eve of Donald J Trump's inauguration, America's incoming first lady is making one thing perfectly clear: She won't settle for a minor credit in this presidential sequel.
On Thursday, the notoriously private 57-year-old former model was pictured (above) meeting with Queen Rania of Jordan at the Trumps' Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.
The former and future first lady has inked a reported $40 million deal with billionaire Jeff Bezos's Amazon to produce a feature-length documentary and follow-up docuseries about her working life. (Barron, Donald and Melania are pictured in 2019).
Behind this Melania 2.0, the Mail has been exclusively told, is a new resolve. Melania wants control and what, she believes, she deserves.
'Money is her number one priority,' said a source familiar with the first lady's thinking.
It's well known that Melania spent her years between White House stints in a return to the business world.
In December 2021, she sold NFTs - digital artworks collectively titled 'Melania's Vision' and retailing for $150. At least some of the proceeds reportedly went to children and teens exiting the foster care system.
The first lady has also been busy hawking Christmas decorations and jewellery. And there was her eponymous New York Times best-selling memoir, released in July, which she reportedly did not receive a large advance to write, but is likely generating healthy royalty payments.
'She has always wanted to be seen as a savvy businesswoman,' the source said.
Well, savvy is one word for it.
At one of the few 2024 presidential campaign events she attended, Melania reportedly took home a six-figure paycheck.
The payment was revealed in a financial disclosure form that Trump filed in August. It showed Melania was paid $237,500 for a 'speaking engagement' at a fundraiser for her husband, held by the Log Cabin Republicans in April.
The person or entity who cut the check, however, remains a mystery. A spokesperson for the Log Cabin Republicans - an LGBT conservative group - told CNN that they didn't pay her.
Ethics experts have been taken aback by the revelation.
'It seems pretty self-serving. From my own general observation, I'm not used to seeing that,' Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel at the non-partisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics group, said of the hefty payment at the time.
No doubt speculation that Melania will now attempt to profit from her second run in the White House is raising questions of morality – but, not necessarily, of legality.
Behind this Melania 2.0, the Mail has been exclusively told, is a new resolve. Melania wants control and what, she believes, she deserves. (Melania, Barron and Donald are pictured on election night).
At one of the few 2024 presidential campaign events she attended, Melania reportedly took home a six-figure paycheck. (She is pictured speaking at the fundraiser held by the Log Cabin Republicans in April).
The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution forbids an elected federal official from profiting off their public position, but the first lady is an honorary position, not mentioned in the Constitution or in federal law.
'The ethics rules don't apply because that person is not a government employee,' the Office of Government Ethics told the Mail.
When asked by Daily Mail in November, Melania's office didn't answer she plans to continue her professional ventures after inauguration day, though she certainly wouldn't be the first to do so.
First Lady Jill Biden taught at Northern Virginia Community College while in the White House. And Nancy Reagan, when she was first lady, received royalties for her past movie, television and radio work, which she donated to charity.
And there also seems to be another force driving Melania as well. 'She wants to have complete control over what people see,' said a source.
The first lady has long been recognized as someone with exquisite self-command – now it appears she's seeking to be in command of others.
When Melania did face the public during Trump's first term, her appearances often turned into distracting PR blunders, not the least of which occurred during her visit to a migrant children's detention facility in June 2018.
The fashion-forward first lady wore an army-green jacket with the phrase 'I really don't care. Do u?' daubed in white paint across the back.
In the absence of an initial explanation from Melania, critics interpreted the unique sartorial display to be a veiled missive about her husband's controversial family separation policy on the border.
Months later – following reams of negative media coverage – Melania's spokesperson claimed the jacket had no 'hidden meaning.' But years later, in her memoir, Melania corrected the record, saying she was sending a message after all.
'I was determined… not to let the media's false narratives affect my mission to help the children and families at the border,' she wrote.
This gripe of false media reporting is one that Melania returns to frequently and, perhaps, for good reason.
In Trump's first term, she was branded by critics as aloof and worse. At one point, internet trolls promoted a 'Free Melania' movement, stoking the conspiracy that she was being held captive to her husband's political ambitions.
'The biggest fear the Trumps have is bad press. They hate bad press. They obsess over it,' an insider told the Mail.
Now, Melania's making it clear that this time will be different.
In an extended interview with Fox News on Monday, she spoke with extraordinary and atypical openness on the topic.
The fashion-forward first lady wore an army-green jacket with the phrase 'I really don't care. Do u?' daubed in white paint across the back. (Melania pictured wearing the jacket in June 2018).
'I just feel that people didn't accept me, maybe,' she said. 'I didn't have much support. Maybe some people - they see me as just a wife of the president. But I'm standing on my own two feet. Independent.'
If there's a word to describe Melania in her second term, it's prepared.
'I imagine she feels certainly that she better knows the pitfalls and knows what not to do,' said Dr. Katherine Jellison, a professor at Ohio University who is an expert on first ladies.
'I know where I will be going,' Melania told Fox News. 'I know the rooms where we will be living. I know the process.'
