Melania Trump whitewashes a presidency

BOOK REVIEW

- ALEXANDRA JACOBS

White House memoirs tend to go on a bit. Melania Trump is slim, as befits an erstwhile fashion model who prepared for her husband's 2017 inauguration with "strong espresso and a light breakfast of fruit," but gravely out of shape.

Better brew a double before cracking Melania, which, though clad in a black cover -- a choice that could symbolise mourning, sophistication or more likely abject nothingness -- is a brazen whitewash of a presidency and a marriage of some tumult.

Its 182 pages are padded with a generous photo insert, including an old ad she did for Camel cigarettes. There are long quotes from the former first lady's previously delivered speeches, and some of Mr Trump's, too. And as if to assert herself against his omnipresent monogram, some paragraph breaks are marked with the stark initial M. Is this a book or a souvenir tea towel?

Certainly the timing of its release, less than a month before the 2024 election, invites speculation about what exactly Melania is intended to accomplish. Its biggest revelation, that Mrs Trump supports abortion rights, could be a cry of independence -- or a strategised attempt to further blur Mr Trump's unpopular policy position. The author briefly waves a manicured hand at the idea that trans women in sports might unfairly dash some dreams, and refuses to concede that President Biden won in 2020.