In new book, Melania Trump discusses Barron, pro-choice stance, and more
WASHINGTON – You can use her full name if you want, but many years have passed since Melania Trump needed it.
The former first lady may not have the creative or policy achievements of a Beyoncé, Rihanna, Bono or Hillary, but here she is, one month out from Election Day, with a slim memoir bearing the one-word title of a would-be icon: “Melania" (256 pp, Skyhorse).
Packed with photos of the onetime fashion model, the book is a plainspoken dash through Melania’s life, from her Cold War childhood in Yugoslavia – where her father was a prosperous businessman who drove a Citro?n Maserati SM, one of the coolest cars ever made – to her arrival in New York at age 26, to her life with a certain real estate mogul-turned-president.
There’s a lot “Melania” doesn’t say about the Trump White House. No worry: Plenty of former Trump aides and appointees have come forward to fill those gaps. No one should pay the book’s $40 asking price for keen political insight.
More: Donald Trump on Melania Trump's abortion comments: 'You have to write what you believe'
What you get instead is a portrait of a woman who was adjacent to great power – and who may yet be again – and her strong dedication to her son, parents and husband.
Here are seven takeaways from “Melania.”
Melania is an election denier
While less bombastic than Donald Trump in her claims, “Melania” leaves no doubt that Melania still clings to a false belief the 2020 election was stolen.
Melania writes that in the run-up to November 2020 “...the media, Big Tech, and the deep state were all determined to prevent Donald’s election, by any means necessary.” She “worried the election would be unfair.”
The former first lady describes “suspicious voting activity being reported all over the country” on Election Day, while ignoring the cold fact that 30-odd judges – some appointed by her own husband – threw out Trump's election challenges on the merits.
And she makes no mention of the federal and state criminal charges the former president faces in Washington, D.C., and in Georgia over his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden.
“Many Americans still have doubts to this day,” she writes. “I am not the only one who questions the results.”
Melania is pro-choice
Melania Trump isn't the first first lady to break with her husband on important issues. Laura Bush also supported abortion rights while her husband, George W. Bush, ran and governed as an abortion foe.
Polls show Donald Trump, who has bragged that the constitutional right to abortion was overturned thanks to the three Supreme Court justices he appointed, is losing badly to Kamala Harris among women voters.
Will Melania's big reveal, nearly four years after the Trumps left the White House, make a difference?
Framing the issue as one of personal freedom, Melania writes, “A woman’s fundamental right to individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy.”
More: Florida abortion measure shows how Trump has struggled with abortion politics after Roe
Live in the Situation Room
One of the key responsibilities of the first lady is to the upkeep and decoration of the White House, and “Melania” details her work to renovate the two-century-old presidential headquarters and residence.
But on one day in October 2019, Melania describes being called away from her duties to join her husband, Vice President Mike Pence, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and other security big-wigs in the Situation Room to watch a live feed of a Delta Force raid in Syria.
The target: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-styled “caliph” of the murderous Islamic State terrorist army. “Watch this incredible action at work,” the president whispers.
Melania writes that she was impressed by the raid, but left before its climax: Al-Baghdadi, cornered by military dogs in an underground tunnel, detonated a suicide vest, killing himself.
Don’t mess with Barron
You can still feel Melania’s fury at Rosie O’Donnell, a former host of “The View” and a longtime adversary of her husband, for a Twitter stunt targeting then 10-year-old Barron Trump.
Two weeks after Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory, O’Donnell tweeted a link to a video suggesting Barron was on the autism spectrum. The comedian claimed she was trying to erase stigma.
“I was appalled by such cruelty. It was clear to me that she was not interested in raising awareness about autism,” Melania writes. “I felt that she was attacking my son because she didn’t like my husband.”
“There is nothing shameful about autism (though O’Donnell’s tweet implied that there was), but Barron is not autistic,” she says. “...Bullying a ten-year-old boy is egregious, but doing so under the flimsy pretense of ‘bringing awareness’...is truly repulsive.”
O’Donnell apologized and deleted her tweet days later.
Where’s Stormy?
Melania makes no mention of the many allegations of sexual misconduct made against Donald Trump, from his purported tryst with porn actress Stormy Daniels, to a reported affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal, to more serious claims of assault made by several women, including writer E. Jean Carroll.
The former president was found civilly liable earlier this year for assaulting Carroll and then defaming her when he denied it. He was convicted of dozens of felonies in a New York court – a first for a former president – of doctoring business records to conceal hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Trump is appealing both verdicts.
More: Did Donald Trump rape E. Jean Carroll? Here's what a jury and judge said.
Unaware, and then appalled, on Jan. 6
Melania writes that she was slow to learn about the frenzied assault on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. Working with a team to document and prepare the White House for its new occupants, she writes, “I wasn’t thinking of it as the day Congress would certify the election results.”
Stephanie Grisham, a former aide to both Melania and Donald Trump, has described asking Melania to denounce the violence at the Capitol, even as the president was still refusing to. According to Grisham, who has endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris for president, Melania replied, “No.”
“Had I been fully informed of the details, naturally, I would have immediately denounced the violence at the Capitol building,” Melania writes.
Melania writes that she didn’t learn of the assault on the Capitol until the White House’s chief usher told her. Her condemnation includes a swipe at Pence, who was targeted by rioters for his refusal to block the certification of Biden’s victory.
“The violence we witnessed was unequivocally unacceptable,” Melania writes. “While I recognized that many individuals felt the election was mishandled and the vice president should halt the confirmation process, we must never resort to violence.”
Blood on the stage
The most intense moment in “Melania” was perhaps the most intense moment for the nation so far this year: the shooting of Donald Trump by a 20-year-old sniper at a July campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Melania doesn’t dwell on how close Trump came to being killed that day. She pays tribute to firefighter Corey Comperatore, who died in the spray of gunfire, and shows how hard it can be to look away from trauma: “The relentless replay of the rally footage on the news only intensified our anxiety.”
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Melania Trump's pro-choice stance isn't only revelation from new book