First lady Melania Trump’s official White House portrait says it all. Pictured in a black pantsuit and white collared shirt, she stands at the head of a table, as if in a boardroom ready to make a deal. And sure enough, even before she moved back into the (RIP) East Wing, she had inked a $US40 million ($59.71 million) deal for a documentary about her life.

“What I’m [doing], what kind of responsibilities I have – people, they don’t really know,” she said on Fox News early in 2025, describing the documentary. “It’s day to day, from transition team to moving to the White House, packing, establishing my team, the First Lady Office, moving into the White House, what it takes to make the residence your home, to hire the people that you need.”

First lady Melania Trump at her Mar-a-Lago club on Christmas Eve.Credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Somehow, most first ladies were able to do all of the above without needing to make millions of dollars and a having a film crew in tow. But Trump, like her husband, has shattered the norms and ethics of the White House, transforming the role like no other first lady before her – and not for the better.

When Melania Trump left the White House in January 2021, she had an approval rating of 42 per cent, the lowest on record for any first lady. And a 2020 Siena College study of all first ladies ranked her dead last on every metric, including value to the country, value to the president and stewardship of the White........

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