The author of a biography of Melania Trump discussed the former and future first lady on Good Morning America.
Mary Jordan, the Washington Post associate editor, is the author of The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump, which Simon & Schuster published in 2020. A critic for Kirkus called the book “interesting and fair—as complete a portrait as we can expect of the current first lady.”
GMA co-anchor Michael Strahan asked Jordan what she thought Melania Trump’s role will be during President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.
“I think it will be a little different from the first time, because remember the Trumps, Melania and Donald, were shocked when they won in 2016,” Jordan said. “This time, they were expecting it. This time, Melania—you know, she’s no longer a newbie on this. She’s getting more assertive and confident. On the other hand, we’re not going to be seeing her as we see Jill Biden and other first ladies, because Melania is as unconventional as her husband is, and she just will disappear when she wants to and come out when she wants to.”
Strahan noted that some observers think that Melania Trump will choose not to have the White House as her permanent residence during her husband’s second term.
“I think there’s a mistaken notion that she really hated being first lady,” Jordan said. “She really did like a lot of it. She loved meeting foreign leaders. It’s just that she wants to do what she wants to do.…So if she wants to go to Mar-a-Lago and hang out by herself for two weeks, she’ll do that. But she’s going to be in the White House. She loves a lot of the pomp and circumstance of it.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
