From The New Yorker's devastating profile of Melania Trump:

[cali]

<huge snip>


They call out other fudges: Melania has claimed to have won first place in the Look of the Year contest; her Web site states that she obtained a degree in architecture and design from the University of Ljubljana when in fact she dropped out in her first year. Let’s assume, for a moment, that Melania does have Donald’s ear. Imagine the game of geopolitical telephone that might ensue after a state dinner, with each of them trying to persuade the other how he or she killed with Xi or Netanyahu.

“Do you speak any Spanish?” Barbara Walters asked Trump in November. “No,” he replied. “This is an English-speaking country, remember?” It must be a bizarre feeling to be Donald Trump and to have a multilingual son who, at one point, spoke English with a Slovenian inflection. (“He has an accent?” Larry King asked, in puzzlement, when the family appeared on his show in 2010.) Trump had no problem lumping Columba Bush, who came to America legally, with other “Mexican illegals,” or mocking Jeb Bush on the ground that he “speaks Mexican.” (Trump retweeted both comments.) Yet Melania’s speech suggests that she hasn’t entirely dropped Slovenian. And Trump’s in-laws, who don’t speak English, spend a significant portion of the year in New York, helping with Barron. Running parallel to Trump’s belief in American exceptionalism is a sort of personal exceptionalism: the rules, even if he makes them, don’t apply to him.

Melania is as imperial as her husband, if not more so. Most aspiring First Ladies chase accessibility to the point of absurdity—Teresa Heinz Kerry called herself an “African-American” when she spoke to black audiences—but Melania positions herself as aspirational, playing ice queen rather than soccer mom. Not only does she never joke about her husband; she is entirely self-serious. The most un-American thing about her is that she is discreet about her weaknesses. She doesn’t attempt to bond by deprecating herself. She makes no apologies for her twenty-five-carat diamond (a gift from Trump for their tenth anniversary), her formal life style (“He’s not a sweatpants child,” she has said, of Barron), her multiple houses (“Bye! I’m off to my #summer residence #countryside #weekend”). Nor does she brook any challenge to her grasp of the issues. In 2011, after Donald joined the birther movement, she went on “The Joy Behar Show”:


<snip>

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/09/who-is-melania-trump?intcid=mod-most-popular

[malthaussen]

1. Just the kind of classy dame we need in the White House...

... except isn't Mr Trump due to trade her in for a new model sometime soon?

-- Mal

[Person 2713]

17. Yes I was wondering would it be the same flotus all 4 yrs if he was POTUS?

[closeupready]

2. Much ado about nothing. She's a trophy wife, a good mother from

what appears to be a strong family ... What is the controversy here, that she's too pretty? That she maybe lied about stuff in her life, unlike Hillary of course? That unlike Hillary or Bill, Melania refuses to be held accountable?

Give me a break - she's not running for President.

[MFM008]

4. we know this how?

There is nothing good about this bunch.
nothing.

[cali]

5. Like her.husband, she was a vocal birther

[closeupready]

6. Who cares. I mean, you do, but why?

???

[cali]

7. Obviously many people care.

[closeupready]

8. But you don't? If you do, can you explain why you care? Or do you not

understand why you care? Or maybe you don't want to say why.

So not a big deal to most people.

[cali]

11. I find it interesting. Why does that bother you so much?

[Rex]

19. That was a strange exchange.

Never thought I would see the day someone got upset about telling the truth about Donald's wife...strange days.

[cali]

22. Yeah, that was decidedly odd.

[Tsiyu]

31. Third that

I'm always curious to see the sorts who fed on that birther non-issue like hyenas gnawing on a dry bone. Strange that a wealthy woman from Eastern Europe would be so invested in the issue.

Also strange that you are being treated like you're being offensive for questioning the motives and character of a woman who may become FLOTUS.

But it's an election year, so I expect to scratch my head a lot when I get the rare chance to visit here and see what's up. It's D frickin' U after all.

[closeupready]

32. You didn't initially say you thought it was interesting;

what you DID say was that lots of people care. So you state lots of people care, without adding whether you do or you don't.

So, fine, you think it's interesting.

What bothers me is the appearance of misogyny here. She's an attractive woman who conforms to traditional gender stereotypes, and not only succeeds at it, but wildly so.

[cali]

36. Oh noes. I left out interesting. And yes, people care

They want to know about a potential first lady. Misogyny? Ridiculous. No misogyny in that piece or in comments.

[Person 2713]

18. What do you think discrediting Obamas citizenship and the birther movement were all about?

Not that you care to think about it

[yardwork]

30. ..... Beautiful mind.

[closeupready]

33. I don't care what Melania Trump thinks.

[underpants]

3. Prosperity gospel of white grievance

Might want to build a wall around his pants



Very well written.

My wife has a word for Melania but I won't post it here.

[Hekate]

9. Prosperity gospel for male grievance/Prosperity gospel for white grievance. Nail meet hammer.

[clarice]

10. With all respect... I found the article to be more of a commendation than a condemnation.nt

[cali]

12. Wow. I certainly don't.

[clarice]

13. I guess what I mean....

is that it's somewhat refreshing to see a person who doesn't deem it necessary to apologize for their wealth...
In contrast to some of the actor/lawyer types who will do anything to paint themselves as "one of the people" in spite of their
obvious economic advantage. (see: Susan Sarandon)

[passiveporcupine]

15. susan Sarandan may have wealth

but she is still willing to work for people below her on the totem pole, and say they deserve to be more "equal"

Donald's wife on the other hand, is happy to say the people are not equal and do not deserve the same kinds of happiness and wellness.

And apparently there are Hillary supporters who agree with her.

[Tikki]

14. Make America Great Britain again...It is pretty obvious this guy and his wife want....

to be King and Queen of this Country.

Kings and Queens don't have to vet anything...They are born into it, you know...


Tikki

[Ineeda]

20. There's a PDF floating around

from a little while back that is a slideshow of the Trump's opulent NYC penthouse. If something is standing still, it's gilded! It makes Buckingham Palace look downright ghetto. One shot is of Princess...um, I mean Mrs. T evidently packing for a little getaway. Her entire bed is covered with matching Louis Vuitton luggage, with open jewelry boxes spilling out priceless trinkets. Now, I believe that in their own private residences, people can live however they want. But all I could think of was the redecorating that would ensue to pimp out their White House.

[B2G]

29. You've evidently never seen

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

[Person 2713]

16. Good read

[rug]

21. Being First Lady will give her the platform to campaign for deregulating chinchilla farms.

[cali]

23. Snort. Now that's funny. Thanks

[keithbvadu2]

25. Does she praise the Donald as much as an earlier wife?

[BillZBubb]

26. She's not running for anything. Trump isn't claiming she'll be an advisor. Let this go.

She's trump's trophy wife. Attack him, not her.

[cali]

27. Oh for fuck's sake. She is a vocal birther. And she's not a child.

[Democat]

38. Yeah, because no one will talk about Bill Clinton, right?

Whose side are you on?

[Hortensis]

28. "he might consider building a wall around his pants."

Lol. ("If he’s as concerned as he says he is by all the “people that are from all over and they’re killers and rapists and they’re coming into this country,” he might consider building a wall around his pants.&quot

I hadn't read anything about her before, so I ended up finding this article more interesting than it maybe should be. Aside from her "louche" life, the deepest insight about her to me is that she may once have been interested enough in architecture to choose it as her phony degree. Oh, and definitely her description of her "boys." Mean anything? Reportedly, many people with narcissistic-type personality disorder are arrested emotionally at some point in childhood.

Oh, well. Semi-victim, with his daughter taking her place beside him? Cynical panderer to a 69-year-old billionaire's narcissism? Both? I disagree that her seeming profound limitations are irrelevant in someone this close to the White House. But that she lacks the hypocrisy to pretend guilt for her lifestyle is at least a relatively positive point to me too, such as it is.

[Jnclr89]

35. He built a tunnel

a few years ago, so to speak.

[Fumesucker]

37. The birther stuff is unfortunate

It's not to her credit that Clinton's campaign started that rumor.

As far as I know.

[Lady_Chat]

39. Yes, it's was only ok to criticize when it was Hillary Clinton or Michele Obama

When their husbands were running for President, they were "fair game" and even after their husbands were elected it continued. Not to mention their children. And these were two accomplished women who didn't need their husbands to attain their goals in life. I admire both of them, for what they have achieved on their own. Some of the most vicious, sexist, racist, hateful things were said, and are still being said, about them. But now that's it's Melania Trump, everyone should remain quiet and respectful? She's best known for taking off her clothes and selling junk jewelry on QVC, all made in China. Oh, and she married a very rich man and is pretty, has maids, cooks, a trainer, a nanny, and has beautiful clothes. How will she deal with all this awful criticism? Cry me a river.

And it doesn't just stop there, Trump has insulted even more women who aren't running for President. Today he called Elizabeth Warren a "Fraud", Megyn Kelly was "Menstrual", Heidi Cruz was "ugly". On and on. Nothing new there. He can say whatever he wants, especially about women, and we should be "nice" when it comes to his wife? I don't think so.

If he's going to dish it out, then he better be able to take it, and that includes his wife. I'm tired of him getting a free pass.