Free, Melania

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by Kate Bennett


  What Melania learned in these moments was the power of the intense messaging she could render without saying a word. If she was merely quiet, she might be boring and shallow. But if she was quiet and did something outside expected protocol, she became interesting and savvy—and sympathetic. She didn’t need the approval or the understanding of that knowledge to operate, but she was clearly clued into its impact. What the tarmac incident taught her was that next to her husband, whose bluster and bravado sucked oxygen out of everyone around him, she had an advantage.

  The last time Melania had gotten that kind of ink and interest was a couple of weeks before the visit to Israel, back in Washington, with another silent and quick motion. She nudged Trump to put his hand over his heart during the national anthem at the White House Easter Egg Roll, a move that got past exactly no one. The entire national press corps seeks out examples of Trump not doing the right thing, for sport. Not showing proper reverence to the national anthem was kind of a big deal.

  Melania and Barron, then eleven, were standing with Trump on the White House’s Truman Balcony, next to a man dressed in a full Easter Bunny costume, a role Sean Spicer once played when he worked in the George W. Bush administration. Below them were visitors on the South Lawn who had been ticketed for the annual roll festivities. Mother and son, Easter Bunny, and the thousands facing them in the crowd had their hands over their hearts as the military singer, Gunnery Sergeant Sheffield, belted out the first bars of the anthem. But Trump just stood there with a goofy, somewhat self-satisfied smile, until Melania moved her left arm into his right, with some force. It was a subtle and stealthy reminder that got Trump’s hand in the correct place by the time “dawn’s early light” approached. “Watch the First Lady Nudge President Trump for National Anthem,” wrote USA Today; “President Trump Appears to Get a Nudge by First Lady,” said NBC News; “Did Melania Give Husband Anthem Nudge?” asked the BBC; “14 Hilarious Reactions to Melania Trump Nudging Donald for the National Anthem,” wrote Bazaar.

  In essence, Melania had launched the Melania Effect without really even knowing she had done so. How many millions of wives nudge their husband to remember to do something culturally and socially appropriate in a moment of forgetfulness? In an instant, Melania became all the more relatable, and more important, she became real.

  And with each swat, poke, nudge, and pout, she becomes more and more a memorable and independent first lady.

  It’s in these moments that we see the real Melania Trump. A Melania who has scrupulously done her homework and knows what the protocol is that needs to be followed. A Melania who wants to make a good impression. A Melania who is not worried about making her husband happy or making him angry. She is a Melania who is not willing to be ignored.

  Whatever you might think of Melania—insipid trophy wife, clotheshorse, tone-deaf Marie Antoinette, enabler of one of the most divisive presidents in recent history, or a woman who spent her childhood and formative years in a poor communist country, who speaks five languages, who privately spends her time visiting sick children, who is a fierce protector of her child and keeps a noble grace and silence—Melania Trump is impossible to ignore. Say what you will about her, what is clear is that Melania Trump is unlike any other first lady.

  Melania attending a Michael Kors runway show at New York Fashion Week, February 2007. Melania would later go on to wear many of Kors’s designs as first lady, notably a $10,000 sequined suit to President Trump’s first joint address to Congress. (Mark Peterson/Redux)

  Melania delivers her most pivotal public speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 2016. Parts of her speech were taken from a speech previously delivered by former first lady Michelle Obama. (Mark Reinstein/Alamy Stock Photo)

  Melania Trump, then Melanija Knavs, attends the birthday party of her childhood friend Diana Kosar in the small town of Sevnica, Slovenia. Melania is seated first from right, her sister, Ines, first from left. (Tadej Znidarcic/Redux)

  Seven-year-old Melania (first row, second from right) participates in a fashion show for clothing manufacturer Jutranjka, where her mother, Amalija Knavs, was a pattern maker, in 1977. (Tadej Znidarcic/Redux)

  Shots of Melania’s first professional modeling images, taken by Slovenian photographer Stane Jerko, who discovered Melania on the streets of Ljubljana, Slovenia, when she was sixteen years old. (Nicola Zolin/Redux)

  Melania Knauss and Donald Trump attending a New York Knicks basketball game in March 1999, about six months after the two met at a Fashion Week party in Manhattan. (John Keating/Newsday RM via Getty Images)

  Donald Trump kisses daughter Ivanka while holding tight to Melania, on the red carpet at the Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 26, 2004. The date is significant because it is Melania’s thirty-fourth birthday, and earlier that evening, Trump had proposed to her, as noted by the large diamond engagement ring Melania wears in this image. (Evan Agostini/Getty Images)

  Donald Trump and Melania pose playfully at a charity event at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City in April 2005, three months after their lavish Palm Beach, Florida, wedding. (Laura Cavanaugh/UPI/Alamy Stock Photo)

  Melania joins Trump at a New York Mets baseball game at Shea Stadium in 2001 with his daughter Tiffany, who at the time was seven years old. (Howard Earl Simmons/New York Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

  Melania and her father, Viktor Knavs, in a 2007 photograph taken at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club and Florida residence. Both of Melania’s parents spend several weeks a year at Mar-a-Lago. (Media Punch Inc/Alamy Stock Photo)

  Melania plays with Barron Trump, almost two, at a Halloween party in New York City, 2007. (A Scott/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

  Melania holds Barron Trump at the ceremony unveiling Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, January 2007. (Tsuni/USA/Alamy Stock Photo)

  First lady Melania attends Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address, January 2018. Amid headlines about Trump’s alleged infidelities, Melania took a separate motorcade to the address, breaking with the long-standing tradition of the first couple riding together from the White House to the U.S. Capitol. Her choice to wear a white pantsuit that evening also raised eyebrows. (Patsy Lynch/Alamy Stock Photo)

  Melania wearing the infamous pussy bow blouse to a presidential debate in October 2016, which some observers thought could be a reference to the phrase used by her husband on the Access Hollywood tape. Behind are her stepchildren Ivanka, Eric, and Donald Trump, Jr. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

  President Donald Trump applauds as Melania introduces him at a rally in Miami, Florida, in February 2019. The appearance is one of few Melania has made at Trump’s frequent rallies. (T. J. Kirkpatrick/The New York Times/Redux)

  Sitting in on a meeting with Trump and the prime minister of the Czech Republic in the Oval Office, Melania, wearing a green leather trench coat, ignores the media frenzy. March 2019. (White House Photo/Alamy Stock Photo)

  Walking past the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt on the last stop of her first solo international trip as first lady in October 2018. Melania’s outfit caught a lot of press for its similarities to other iconic looks, from a villain in an Indiana Jones movie to Diane Keaton in Annie Hall. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

  Wearing a white hat, custom-made by her personal couturier, Hervé Pierre, Melania stands beside French first lady Brigitte Macron at White House ceremonies for the official state visit of the leader of France, Emmanuel Macron, April 24, 2018. (Alex Edelman/Zuma Wire/Alamy Stock Photo)

  Another “hat” moment from Melania, this time at Buckingham Palace with Queen Elizabeth and the Duchess of Cornwall, June 2019. (Victoria Jones/Alamy Stock Photo)

  On safari at Nairobi National Park, Melania rode with a guide. She would be chastised by critics for having worn the pristine white pith helmet, a common symbol of European Colonial rule. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Redux)

  Melania as first lady of the United States often makes tri
ps to children’s hospitals to visit with young patients as part of her Be Best initiative. Here, she greets four-year-old Essence Overton, at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, July 2018. (Saul Loeb/AFP/ Getty Images)

  Melania announces her Be Best initiative, aimed at helping children, in the White House Rose Garden, May 7, 2018. Exactly one week after the announcement, Melania would enter the hospital for a kidney operation. (Pat Benic/UPI/Alamy Stock Photo)

  Melania holds a baby during a stop at the Nest Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya, part of her solo international trip, October 2018. Melania traveled to four African nations in six days: Ghana, Malawi, Kenya, and Egypt. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Redux)

  Melania takes her first dance as first lady of the United States on January 20, 2017, at the Freedom Inaugural Ball. Before they began to dance to the song “My Way,” Trump introduced Melania, saying, “My number one supporter, Melania. What she puts up with—ugh.” (Aaron B. Bernstein/Getty Images)

  Acknowledgments

  There are people who come into your life in the first place for a reason, and those who re-enter it by some sort of divine stroke of good luck. For me, that person is Colin Fox. Colin and I first met in our freshman year at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, a small liberal arts school that focuses solely on a Great Books program, attended mostly by nerdy types and deep thinkers, college kids not interested in a traditional university Greek system, more the original one, with Plato and Aristotle and Homer. I won’t embarrass Colin by going into our relationship, but it was important and formative and one of the greats. So I was thrilled when we kept in touch for years after college, here and there, and I watched from a distance as his storied career in publishing became the stuff of wild success. A couple of years ago, after I started my job at CNN, Colin would ping me from time to time, “I hope you’re writing this stuff down.” I said I was taking notes. Eventually, it became, “You might have a book there.” And if Colin was telling me so, I probably did. I can’t thank him enough for helping me formulate my thesis (just like we used to do back in school, arguing the opposite sides of theories, testing the limits of logic, questioning man’s nobility and such), and for pushing me to New York to meet with the great Amy Einhorn of Flatiron Books. But I’m most grateful that I coaxed him out of his much-deserved early retirement to act as my agent—my publishing Sherpa, too—and guide me through this new territory I had landed in called writing a book. He has been my leader, my editor, my friend, my counsel, my sounding board, and my forever friend—all from afar in long phone calls, medium-sized emails, and short texts. He has virtually held my hand and many times agreed with me that I was crazy to take this on. (Thanks for that, by the way.) This book would not exist without Colin Fox.

  I’d also like to thank my father, James K. Glassman. When Colin didn’t have the answer, or wasn’t sure he was giving me the right one, he would always say, “Ask your dad.” Because that’s just who my dad is, the guy with all the right answers. Mentor, idol, hero—my compass. He has also been editing my copy since the second grade. I don’t know how I got so blessed to have him as my father, but it is my life’s greatest gift.

  I am also thankful for Cab Bennett, who for almost twenty years has been telling me I can do it—whatever “it” is—when I am certain I cannot. He’s picked up where I have had to drop off, with parenting, with friends, with relationships, with taking care of a creaky house, or beloved and mildly neglected pets, or things that go bump in the night. He’s the rock, the patient calm in my storm.

  Deep thanks to my mother, Mary Glassman, and my sister, Zoë Miles. Both have taught me resilience and fortitude.

  My talented colleagues and bosses at CNN have been generous with their time, support, and patience. They include Jeff Zucker and Virginia Moseley, and Wolf Blitzer, who for many months never failed to ask me how my book was going and who always had a minute for me, a piece of advice, and a funny story. I’d also like to thank Rebekah Metzler and Betsy Klein, for forever being a quick text away, and for long, celebratory dinners in faraway lands. To Glennon Gordon, my very best friend, thank you for keeping me on track, and loving me when I fell off it. And to Susanna Quinn and Elizabeth Thorp, and my Farmington friends, especially Sarah Tonetti, for their collective impeccable intellect and words of wisdom. To Ryan, who rode in on his white horse, thank you for making me feel lucky. And Lauren Pratapas, good egg, great PR woman. Mark “The Shark” London, who I am happy to say is both my lawyer and my dear friend. A special nod of gratitude to Maegan Vazquez, not only a fabulous and tenacious CNN White House reporter, but one hell of a book research assistant in her side hustle. To Stephanie Grisham, for a pretty stellar track record of getting back to me, even when doing so was probably the last thing she wanted to do. I am thoroughly impressed with and thankful for the countless journalists I interact with each day and in the many years that have made up my long and happy career. It is sometimes a challenging profession, but one of extreme importance—thank you for letting me read your work and form a better understanding of the world around me.

  I reserve special thanks for my editor, Amy Einhorn, who I am really grateful didn’t drop me when I missed, well, almost every deadline. She was there for me in the beginning of this process when I was super-confident, and also there for me when I lost all hope. Most important, she is the best in the business and I cannot believe how lucky I am that she agreed to take me on for my first book. Thank you to the Flatiron Books team: Bob Miller, Marlena Bittner, Keith Hayes, Cristina Gilbert, Nancy Trypuc, and most especially, Mr. Fix-It, Conor Mintzer.

  Finally, I’d like to thank first lady Melania Trump, a fascinating woman who has been one of the most challenging, interesting, and inspiring subjects I have ever covered.

  About the Author

  Kate Bennett, a CNN reporter, is the only journalist in the White House press corps to cover solely first lady Melania Trump and the Trump family. Bennett has been a lifestyle journalist for almost two decades, chronicling the intersection of people, pop culture, fashion, and politics. She is also the author of a weekly CNN Politics newsletter about the social and cultural climate in Washington. Bennett is a native of Washington and a graduate of St. John’s College, where she majored in classics and philosophy, and her work has appeared in Politico, Washingtonian, and Capitol File magazine, where she was editor in chief. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland. You can sign up for email updates here.

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  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Author’s Note

  Introduction

    1. The Speech

    2. The Reluctant Campaigner

    3. The Tape

    4. The Girl from Slovenia

    5. The Donald

    6. The Girlfriend

    7. The Business of Becoming Mrs. Donald Trump

    8. The Wedding of the Century

    9. Family First, First Family

  10. Just Melania

  11. The White House

  12. A Most Independent First Lady

  13. Cordial, Not Close

  14. The Firing Squad

  15. The East Wing, the White House’s Tightest Ship

  16. The Marriage

  17. A Room of Her Own

  18. A Health Crisis

  19. The Fashion

  20. The Melania Effect

  Photographs

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Copyright

  FREE, MELANIA
. Copyright © 2019 by Kate Bennett. All rights reserved. For information, address Flatiron Books, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271.

  www.flatironbooks.com

  Cover photograph © John Angelillo/Pool Photo via AP

  The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  ISBN 978-1-250-30737-8 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-250-30738-5 (ebook)

  eISBN 9781250307385

  Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at [email protected].

  First Edition: December 2019

 

 

 


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