The Real Motive Behind Melania Trump's Return To The Limelight, According To Her Former Aide

Melania Trump's attendance at Rosalynn Carter's memorial service in November 2023 marked a big change for the former First Lady. Since Donald Trump left office in 2020, Melania has been keeping a decidedly low profile even as her husband announced his run for president for a third time. However, that all appears to be changing, as she's begun making more public appearances. In addition to attending Carter's service, the National Archives issued a press release confirming that Melania, herself a naturalized citizen, would be speaking at a naturalization ceremony in the National Archives Rotunda on Bill of Rights Day on December 15, 2023 — who even knew that was a thing?

Melania's increased visibility of late, in particular at an event focused on naturalization, comes with an ulterior motive, according to Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, Melania's former friend and aide. Winston Wolkoff posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Melania's appearance at the event is all about creating a diversion from her husband's unscrupulous affairs and legal battles, especially since Melania "doesn't care about the U.S." She added, "Melania is a vessel of complicity & distraction trying to create a stark contrast from their reality. The Trumps' 'actions' contradict their so-called 'beliefs and values.'"

There's quite a lot to distract from when it comes to Donald at the moment — he's facing four indictments and that doesn't even count the civil fraud trial against Donald, his eldest sons, and the Trump Organization in New York, which is coming to a close.

Distraction is a move that Stephanie Winston Wolkoff thinks Melania and Donald Trump have used before. Winston Wolkoff wrote on X: "The hypocrisy of Melania Trump hosting a naturalization event at the National Archives (where Donald is under investigation) is right up there with her so-called Be Best anti-bullying platform (where Donald is Bully #1)." She accused Melania of allowing herself to be used by her husband, for whom public opinion continues to be extremely low. 

For some context to the comparison, Melania's "Be Best" initiative was launched in 2018, and according to the White House archives, it was dedicated to, among other things, helping children realize that, "they must choose their words wisely and speak with respect and compassion." Anyone who's looked at Donald's social media feed, whether it's on X or Truth Social, knows that isn't how he tends to act online. So, there seemed to be a pretty big disconnect between husband and wife with that one. Melania didn't directly address her husband's online behavior when she launched "Be Best." However, according to The New York Times, she knew she'd be called out for the initiative because of her husband's cyberbullying, but she didn't care. 

Stephanie Winston Wilkoff's comparison of "Be Best" to Melania speaking at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) event makes sense, considering the beef that Donald Trump has with the NARA. He's facing 40 felony charges over alleged mishandling of official presidential documents. The NARA alerted the Department of Justice (DOJ) to the discovery of classified documents in multiple boxes of documents received from Mar-a-Lago after Donald left office, and they opened an investigation into him. The NARA also turned over the boxes to the FBI, and Donald certainly wasn't happy about it. Since then, Donald has called out the NARA, referring to them as, among other things, a "radical left group," per Fox News.

Winston Wolkoff has leveled several bold accusations against Melania before. She even wrote a whole book about their relationship called "Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady." The two had a falling out after The New York Times reported that Winston Wolkoff's company had received over $1 million from Trump's inauguration committee.

Given Melania's history of keeping quiet about her husband's legal issues, we doubt that we'll hear anything about them at her NARA event. Still, we will be interested to see if this marks Melania's true return to the public sphere will carry over to joining Donald on the presidential campaign trail — something that he's said will be happening "pretty soon."