The Surprising Thing Melania Trump's Valentine's Day Post Was Missing

The marriage between Melania and Donald Trump has always been under the microscope, and that's partly because of the behavior of the Trumps themselves. The two have shared quite a few moments that can only be described as awkward at best.

For example, Marie Claire noted that during Donald Trump's first and only inauguration, Melania was captured smiling broadly at him when he glanced back at her... but then dropped her smile immediately as soon as he turned away. In 2018, Vanity Fair reported that many were surprised when Donald Trump was filmed rushing to speak with reporters while leaving his wife out in the rain.

Melania herself recently stirred the pot with an Instagram post on Valentine's Day. Instead of writing a caption about her husband, or even her family, Melania noted the holiday by sharing a photo of her time as first lady and writing, "On this #ValentinesDay, I think of the brave & inspirational children at @TheChildrensInn @NIH where I visited the past few years. Sending them love & strength, today & everyday."

Harper's Bazaar asked a body language expert back in 2017 to analyze photos and videos of the Trumps. Patti Wood, the author of Snap: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma, took a look at photos of the then-first couple, beginning with one from 1999. In the photo, Melania Trump is pictured with her legs crossed away from Donald Trump, which Wood said tells the viewer a lot.

"She should know to be open and relaxed. I looked at other photos of her in other situations and she's more open. Here, she seems to be more closed, which tells me that there's something about her being public in this relationship that [makes her] feel the need to close herself off a little bit from him."

From the inaugural ball held on Jan. 20, 2017, Wood believed the video and photos from the evening spelled trouble for the couple. "There was one moment where she kissed him but it was very, very formal. They didn't seem to have intimate moments during the dance, it didn't seem to be about them as a couple."

In a lot of ways, the relationship between Melania and Donald Trump is unusual. Author Mary Jordan, who published a biography of Melania Trump last year — the final year of Trump's presidency — explained to The Guardian that the pair don't seem to spend a lot of time together. "I don't know any couple that spends as much time apart," she said. "They are often in the same building, but nowhere near each other. She rarely goes into the West Wing. She doesn't like to golf. She has her own little spa. She likes to be isolated. She is a loner. He is a loner. They're perfectly happy to be separated."

But despite that, it sounds like they are still pretty connected. "And yet, she's the first call he makes after a speech or a rally, because he trusts her — he doesn't trust many people ...there is a bond there: they have a deal, right from the beginning. He loves himself, he loves his job, he's got his own life and he spends a lot of time apart from her. And she's absolutely fine with that" (via The Guardian).

While the idea of not being physically near a partner might be difficult for some, friends of Melania Trump say she seems to prefer it this way. Decorator and Trump family friend William Eubanks told Vanity Fair, "She enjoys her role of stepping back and letting him take center stage." PR pro and family friend Lisa Bytner echoed this sentiment, "She doesn't make waves. She speaks only when spoken to. She's just very sweet" (via Vanity Fair).

This has been backed up by Donald Trump and his friends, too. One of Donald Trump's business partners, Federico Pignatelli, says that Melania is the opposite of Trump's first wife. "Ivana was an intelligent, entrepreneurial woman. Also a very strong-minded person and very feisty. While instead, Melania ... really no fights" (via Vanity Fair).

Author Mary Jordan agrees that the union definitely made sense for Donald Trump. As she told The Guardian, "This was the age of the supermodel, and if you had money, you hung around, went to parties with all these people. Trump didn't drink, didn't do drugs and didn't demand much. He just wanted a gorgeous woman in the photo so that he could be in the paper, and then he would go literally back to work."