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Maureen Dowd

By Maureen Dowd

Opinion Columnist, reporting from Washington

I was feeling sad that Melania may not care to come play first lady in the second Trump administration.

She visited the East Wing only a couple of times during her husband’s first term, turning into the first lady of absenteeism, according to Katie Rogers, the author of “American Woman,” a history of modern first ladies. Her office there was so empty, her staff used it as a gift-wrapping station.

Even so, I thought we might get a little comme il faut from “the Portrait,” as Ivanka nicknamed her stepmother — a small bow to protocol.

But not likely. As some in the Trump orbit point out, it’s no accident that Barron is going to New York University, not a university here, like Georgetown or American.

Melania will probably “move in” to the White House and drop by the capital, looking impervious and gorgeous. But in general, the Slovenian Sphinx is going to get even more sphinxy this time. She has made her disdain for D.C. clear. She skipped the ritual torch-passing of having tea in the Yellow Room of the White House with Jill Biden as the two presidents met. Jill had to settle for handing a note to Donald to take back to Melania in Palm Beach.

The New York Post reported that Melania abhorred the Bidens because of the Mar-a-Lago documents raid in 2022, when she felt violated by F.B.I. agents with a search warrant snooping in the drawer with her fine washables.

In an interview with Paris Match, Melania dripped more disdain on the woman who succeeded and precedes her. While Jill reached out to her after the assassination attempt on her husband, she questioned whether the concern was “genuine,” given that a few days earlier, Jill called Donald Trump “evil” and a “liar.” She also said rhetoric from Democrats and the mainstream media provoked the assassination attempt.

Melania wondered if the notion of “respect” had become obsolete.

Good question to ponder as we watch people with no respect for Washington tearing it apart from........

© The New York Times