The First Lady has begun to leverage her position more aggressively to pursue a political agenda her senior advisor calls “Melania Trump’s playbook.” According to new reporting by Politico, “Mostly working behind the scenes, Trump has engaged selectively on issues she cares about personally.”
This has included meeting with Democratic lawmakers to collaborate on foster care reform, and working with Congress to pass the Take It Down Act, which combats the posting of nonconsensual intimate imagery online. What’s more, “She and her staff have negotiated directly with Russian and Ukrainian officials on the issue of displaced and abducted children, according to the White House, the Russians and the Ukrainians. In September, she hosted Cabinet officials and tech CEOs, including Google’s Sundar Pichai and IBM’s Arvind Krishna, to promote integrating artificial intelligence into children’s education.”
Through much of this, reports Politico, Trump has enjoyed a surprising level of bipartisan support. According to Representative Danny Davis (D-IL), the ranking member of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on work and welfare, committee meetings on foster care that were attended by the First Lady turned out to be a “feel good” affair. Said Representative Gwen Moore (D-WI), “The First Lady has shown an interest and passion in helping foster youth, and it’s wonderful that she is lifting up their needs.”
“Trump was also pleased to have bipartisan support, a rarity in Washington,” writes Politico. “The collaboration with Democrats to get the bill passed in the House ‘meant a lot to her,’ said Marc Beckman, senior exclusive adviser to the first lady… In a rare interview, Beckman made the case to Politico that Melania Trump’s more sparing public profile this term was aimed at making her more effective on the issues she cares about. Her lack of ubiquity, this theory goes, makes the spotlight brighter when she chooses to speak. She’s pursuing ‘Melania Trump’s playbook,’ Beckman said. ‘First lady Melania Trump is locked in. She is looking to achieve more than any first lady before in history.’”
Even so, as Politico notes, she remains a “polarizing” figure. Polling has revealed she has an “unprecedented” disapproval rating, and it’s not difficult to see why perceptions of her are so divisive.
“In March, she became the first sitting spouse of any country to chair a UN Security Council meeting,” explains Politico. “ Her supporters saw a historic first. She brought her signature issue – the safety of children – to the world stage and called for peace, saying it ‘does not need to be fragile.’ Her critics noted she spoke just days after the U.S. and Israel launched a war with Iran, a topic she did not mention, and that her calls for peace and protecting children rang hollow in light of her husband’s new war.” Mere days earlier, a U.S. strike hit an Iranian school, killing over 100 children.
Poor public opinion or not, she has managed to advance a number of policies, though sometimes with dubious outcomes. After hosting the bipartisan roundtable on foster care in April, for example, she told lawmakers, “I want this on Donald’s desk by the August recess.” It passed unanimously in the House but has languished in the Senate, and the president hasn’t pushed senators to take action, though the First Lady’s August deadline is looming.