Many people theorized that as soon as Donald Trump lost the election, Melania Trump would leave him and file for divorce. It was said that she can’t stand him, that she avoided him constantly at the White House, that they barely spoke. Other people said “not so fast.” The version of Melania which I now believe is one where she truly doesn’t give a sh-t either way – she’s a self-absorbed golddigger trophy wife who only wants a comfortable, lazy existence, and she can have a husband or an ex-husband, her life goals are the same. So… how does this fit in? Apparently, Melania is organizing her own post-First Lady office so she can extend her Be Best busy work. The f–k?
Former first lady Melania Trump is establishing a post-White House office in Palm Beach, Florida, according to two sources familiar with her plans. Her intention is to “maintain ‘Be Best,'” said one of the sources, Trump’s loosely defined initiative that looks to help children. During her time in the White House, “Be Best” existed as a broad, three-pillared initiative, consisting of children’s health and well-being, safety online and prevention of social media bullying and the impact of the opioid crisis on children.
Trump often did little to help clarify or expand on her platform during her time in the White House, often going weeks between Be Best-focused public events. The East Wing policy office was not robustly staffed, at times sat vacant, and at most had one full-time, dedicated East Wing employee.
Trump’s post-White House office will consist of three of her White House staff members, the sources confirmed to CNN. Hayley D’Antuono served for four years as the former first lady’s director of operations and trip supervisor, and is now Trump’s chief of staff. Mary “Casey” Finzer was a low-level staff assistant in the East Wing office, and one of her tasks included keeping stock of Trump’s “gift closet,” according to a source, where gifted items were kept and wrapped to be distributed at school or hospital events and for trips. Finzer is now a part of the operational and administrative side Trump’s post-White House team. Marcia Kelly, who served as an unpaid senior adviser to Trump when she was in the White House, is also staying onboard for the post-White House office, though it is unclear whether she will now receive a salary.
Both sources indicate Trump’s office is for now functioning out of former President Donald Trump’s private club, Mar-a-Lago, which also is where the former first family is living, and the staff members are at times working remotely. Melania Trump is looking for separate office space in the Palm Beach area. Melania Trump exited the White House with the lowest favorability rating of her tenure as first lady, according to a recent CNN poll.
… What is she up to? I can’t wrap my head around it. She’s clearly not going to DO anything with “Be Best,” so what is the goal here? Is it just basic image upkeep for a “former First Lady”? Or did Melania get a taste of independence and now she wants to have “her own office” like someone important? Or is it something else? I feel like it’s very possible that this is some kind of grift.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
I vote tax write-off—some kind of tax grift.
Sounds about right. It’s a front for her scams.
Also IF she does divorce him, it’ll be after Baron is 18, is my guess. At this point I think she’s holding out to be the widow and hopefully benefit from his life insurance
It’s also a way to have “offices” at M-a-L, so the “rent” goes right into her pocket (so to speak), she will pad “supplies” bills, that we pay for, staff “working remotely” will be phantom, and hmm…where will that salary be paid??? Offshore account most likely.
This family ONLY KNOWS how to grift. This gold-digger did NOTHING as First Lady, let alone her plagiarized “Be Best” *campaign*, which is a joke in itself.
I am infuriated we have to supply this…thing… with ANYTHING.
I was going for her applying for a massive government grant, that with some creative trump accountancy, magically filters into her very own Birkin bag, and is written off slowly each tax cycle. She thinks “work” is an expletive. Naff off, you minger. You’ve had your day. Be best at fvcking off.
Exactly. Grifters gonna grift. She didn’t do anything w/Be Best when she was IN the WH. Such a piece of work. I do believe while she was in NYC renegotiating her pre-nup he put actual cash in her hand (name) so she would come to DC & play the part of First Lady.
Definitely. This is most probably for financial reasons. I don’t know what kind of shenanigans they are planing, but I’m sure that they do.
Grift for donations and tax write offs.
My immediate thought. This woman doesn’t give a rat’s ass for anyone but herself. God, are we never going to be free of these people?
I think you’re absolutely right about that, Merricat. And also it’s rather sad to continue a project with a name that isn’t even correct English usage. Since “best” is the superlative of “good”—(good, better, best)—the superlative of good should be preceded by the article “the” or by a possessive pronoun—your, her, his, their. “Be best” means nothing. “Be the Best” would have had a kind of ugly competitive ring to it. “Be your best” would have been really nice—aspirational and not competitive. I always wondered why no one gave Melania a bit of assistance with that. Surely somebody at the White House understood correct English usage. Well, but it was the Trump White House, so…
…but now that I think a bit more about it, how right that the Trump motto should mean nothing.
Nailed it. She’s totally into the family business of Other People’s Money financing her lifestyle.
It’s all a grift.
I think it’s a combination of grift — donations aren’t going to donate themselves — and a way to keep MAGA hopes up for a Trump run in 2024. Hopefully they’ll get bored at some point.
Exactly. Until the ability to run on 2024 is taken away, Trump is running to reclaim his empire. So we have grift for now and possible future negotiations of her contract.
Charity is a great cover for grift. The only thing better is religion.
So true, very sad.
Trump has had his hand slapped several times for dipping into his own charitable funds for other purposes. So this makes total sense.
The Trumps are not allowed to run charities in New York (how big of an a-hole and thief do you have to be to legally be forbidden to be involved in charities), so she’s set up shop in Florida to cash in on tax write offs, donations, and gifts, and pull in her own money. She knows he’s broke. All the money he’s grifter from donations has gone to paying off debt or will be gone shortly. She getting nothing when he dies or in a divorce, so she’s using her platform to grift herself a best egg.
I’m sure Trump has ample life insurance which is why she won’t divorce him.
No lies detected.
Now would be a good time for a ginormous sink hole to open up and swallow Mar a Lago and all its occupants up. They all need to truly just go away.
Palm Beach town officials already have their tails between their legs and will likely backpedal on enforcing the agreement that Trump not live at Mar-a-Lago. Mind you, it’s understandable as they will probably have their lives threatened by Trump’s rabid cult if they give him the boot.
I’m not so sure. There are plenty of obscenely rich and powerful people with “old money” (multigenerational wealth – they were rich when Trump’s grandfather was a new immigrant from Germany) and Trump’s star is on the decline. Having a pretender like Trump there lowers the whole cachet of the city. I’m not so sure that they will fail but it could happen if he promises to barricade himself and the family at Mar-A-Lago.
Yup. She didn’t do jack as First Lady, so I’m betting she never sets foot in that office. It’ll be a way to get donations and spend them any way she likes under the cover of a not-for-profit.
There will be an advisory board that never meets but each draw salaries of half a million a year.
She might see the writing on the wall and wants somewhere to stash cash when New York comes calling for her husband.
I’m kind of wondering if this is a way for her former staff to get paid work because no one else will have them. Maybe she’s trying to keep them happy either to prevent them from going to the press about her or maybe just so she can have “allies” for whatever reason. It seems like the Trump’s are hiring a lot of their old White House staff, even into the Trump company or to help at mar a lago because these people just cannot find work anywhere else after being associated with the Trump administration. I think it’s part of keeping these people paid so they don’t sell stories.
The Trump’s employees are all cult members. They need their sycophants to constantly tell them how great they are.
Grift
How can you extend something that never started? It’s laughable that we’re expected to believe that Melania is going to something now but not when she was First Lady. I still don’t know what “Be Best” is or does.
Grift. She doesn’t care about any children but her own. This is about the charity gift. She’s learned what to do from the Trumps.
I second the vote for the giant sinkhole to consume Mar-a-Lago. Please!
Such a scam. I truly hate these con artists.
Wait, do First Ladies also get a post-admin budget to set up office? She is clearly just going to turn it into a storage space for horrible Christmas decorations.
Is it possible that after the grift in the Trump family foundation she may be the ONLY family member still allowed to run a foundation?
I think that’s correct. Melania and what’s-her-name who is married to Eric are the only ones who have not been banned from associating with a charity. What a horrible family.
Why bother, she should just do what she’s always done. Sit back in a lounge chair with a sign that says “be worst, like me”.
She was the most USELESS First Lady ever. And her “BeBest” is a joke. Just go away!
Mos def a grift – I would agree that it is probably some kind of conduit for “donations” since it is painfully obvious that she never had any interest in doing any actual work. Nor would I imagine, does she now.
It is galling that the Senate isn’t going to be able to make the second impeachment stick because no one in this family should be allowed to capitalize on the office of the president in any way.
Grabbyhands – It ain’t over til it’s over. I wouldn’t assume the conviction in the Senate won’t happen. More and more is coming out about how murderous Trump’s Terrorists were and his whole defense team just quit.
People are mainly being charged with the lesser offenses only to get them into the system on the most easily provable charges while investigations continue to get evidence for the worse stuff. This is a standard approach, according to various experienced prosecutors. They also are being released with conditions simply because it’s such a high bar to keep them in jail until trial nowadays, especially those with no priors and also because of COVID. The doofuses who violate the conditions will be dealt with.
The investigators are likely getting cooperation from quite a few as it sinks in that they can be facing serious prison time and Trump never intended to protect them from consequences and can’t do it now. Waging war against the United States is part of the definition of treason, and that describes what they did when they became violent and attacked police officers and came into the Capitol looking for legislators to take hostage and kill, which some of them quite definitely did intend to do. The minimum sentence for treason is apparently 5 years. The others may have some trouble convincing the court that they were oblivious to the plans rather than collaborators, considering the digital and video trails they left.
This is going to get bigger and bigger, and Trump’s trial in the Senate may take longer than expected, on a part-time basis (probably in the afternoons) because the Chief Justice and the Senators have other things to do as well. If Trump is convicted, that opens the way to denying him the financial perks of a former President. He may also be at risk of state and local indictments for his shenanigans in the last months of his term. Georgia is talking about going after him for violation of election laws because of his publicized taped conversation with their Secretary of State, and maybe others will come forward to reveal they had similar conversations with him. Truth may come out after all, and justice may be coming to Teflon Donald.
In any case, the public is going to get an earful on what all actually happened even if the Republicans wimp out. The Congressional Republicans started to backtrack after the initial shock wore off because Trumpie constituents bombarded them with phone calls and they are still terrified of losing Trump’s base. That also may change as more comes out. They may become worried about how to explain their acceptance of Trump’s bad behavior and the attack on the Capitol as they hear from other constituents and realize how close they came to an unpleasant death. They are politicians, and bend whichever way the wind blows. If the wind direction changes, so do they.
It’s becoming clear that a significant portion of the mob really was seriously out for blood. They really did want to lynch Pence and shoot Pelosi, for starters, and that’s on video as well as in online archives. Bless their self-incriminating little hearts.
Other Democratic and Republican targets are surfacing. Those pipe bombs left at the Democratic and Republican headquarters were quite functional. It also is becoming clear that this was a planned and coordinated action. Trump has some explaining to do about the few days prior to the attack. Who was he meeting with and what did they discuss? How much did he know about the explicit online discussions of hostage taking and executions? His staff was monitoring such online activity.
THIS
This gives me hope. Thank you.
Sounds like another elaborate racket to me. A family who scams together stays together. She ain’t going nowhere
Btw, Have the Biden’s done a full inventory of the permanent White House collection? I’ve been having an inkling that the grifting Trumps stole and sold several pieces to the highest bidder. Case in point the “photo school” Melania was overseeing on Jan 6th. Was that too show piece some White House collection items to sell? She is tacky and classless so I don’t put anything past her.
I am still wondering about the art objects Trump helped himself to at the American Embassy in Paris. I actually emailed the Embassy to see if they got the loot back, but to date they have not responded.
Yes. Lord, these are trash people.
Melania just go away!!!!!! We don’t care about you!!!!!!!
To compare to another couple once covered on this site (LeAnn and Eddie) – She seems to be the Eddie of the relationship. That means keeping a lower profile, but the couple are really birds of a feather.
Unless a really easy exit ramp comes up, she will just coast along and actually do as little as possible. And steer clear of her spouse.
Continue? Does she mean finally start?
The grift continues. Send me donations OK love? Direct deposit would “be best”
F*ck Melanie Trump and her performative activism. We know who you are. Just stop.
I vote “bingo” to your last sentence, that it is “some kind of grift.” Those four words could be biography and epitaph of every Trump family member (I’ll exclude the kids for now).
Look for the money/follow the money. That’s clearly what this is about as various other comments suggest. All these people know is grift.
This is the family, which she’s proudly & happily a part of, who stole from kids with cancer.
MM2, they stole from kids with cancer?!? I hadn’t heard about this!! I wouldn’t put it past any of them… Ugh this family…
They stole from St. Jude, which makes me hate them even more. Though I think the St. Jude thing was that they promised $300k from a golf fundraiser that Eric did and the money never appeared. I remember hearing about it on NPR and was like “REALLY? the St. Jude kids?!”
Eric originally raised funds for the charity golf tournament saying that the use of the facilities would be a gift from his family. Then Donald Sr. found out and insisted that “everybody pays”. He probably told Eric he would make a donation later and then as usual never did. I’ve always thought Eric was really trying to do something decent but was blindsided himself by his father’s actions.
It has been said before, but I feel it deserves repeating:
GRIFT.
Yes, Smiles it’s true about the children’s cancer charity being used by Trump as a grab bag to pay for his various legal fees and also, he used it for the purchase of a 6 foot portrait of himself. I mean, this family is something out of the twilight zone in hell. I hope that Barron & Tiffany write tell all books one day. Tiffany seems to be trying to fit in, but alas, she’s not the cosmetically improved Ivanka, and carries a bit more weight than Trump desires to be associated with, in his perfect family. He must not own any functional full length mirrors; or maybe they’re like those circus mirrors that make you look much thinner. And Barron (what a name) seems completely miserable, whenever he’s around his family. I read that Melania used to bathe him with some expensive type of skin cleanser, and give him caviar facial masks. He’s definitely going to be in need of some therapy when he’s an adult man. I hope that he can escape the craziness of this narcissistic family.
I get the feeling she’s doing this purely to get a space a way from him, sweating on the couch, in a trucker tank top, with his gut hanging out, tv remote in one hand, phone in the other (til he remembers he can’t tweet lol, but… muscle memory…), yelling at the tv.
She’s in much deserved purgatory and trying to find excuses to escape.
It boggles my mind that more people do not discuss Melania’s wig. Maxine Walters felt that wrath but the former first lady- not even a peep?!?! Particularly that last photo where she is wearing all black. we have never seen Melanias hairline/scalp
No this is legit. This all real. I believe in the former First Lady and her work and I think she’s been massively successful at serving as an example of her message.
Unfortunately, it’s just been spelled incorrectly all of this time. Her initiative has always been:
“Be Beast”.