The rapid demolition of the White House’s East Wing, meant to clear the way for President Donald Trump’s massive gilded ballroom, has annihilated the office space traditionally assigned to the first lady and her staff. Though it seems an obvious slight to a role whose occupants have struggled to be taken seriously, we’ve heard nothing on the matter from first lady Melania Trump. Her silence only highlights her approach to much of her husband’s second term — and how little she likely cares about the ways her husband’s unnecessary vanity project will affect her potential successors.
Her silence only highlights her approach to much of her husband’s second term — and how little she likely cares about the ways her husband’s unnecessary vanity project will affect her potential successors.
As I wrote on Thursday, the East Wing was first built in 1902 under President Theodore Roosevelt as a relatively modest entryway for guests to the White House. The edifice was greatly expanded in 1942 — in part to cover up the construction of a bunker beneath the White House. The reason given was that it would be “used for office purposes,” the Associated Press reported at the time, as “the west wing is now crowded with more than 200 employees, exclusive of the Secret Service and White House police detail. The police and Secret Service will occupy part of the new east wing.”
Later, during the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, never one to miss an opportunity, used the East Wing to support her expanded operations, host events with key constituencies and hold press conferences. But it was Rosalynn Carter who first set up the official Office of the First Lady on the second floor of the East Wing. Carter organized the office into a home base for the political power and influence that first ladies have learned to wield, each in her own fashion and emphases, alongside the usual social responsibilities.
That’s part of the reason why former staffers of Melania Trump’s predecessors told East Wing Magazine that seeing their former offices demolished was “‘jarring,’ ‘a gut punch’ and ‘revolting.’” Melania’s return to Washington, in contrast, has been defined less by her chosen projects than by her frequent absences from the public eye. This pattern has only increased over the years. During her husband’s first term, it was clear that she didn’t love the traditional roles and duties foisted on the first lady. Even as she launched her Be Best anti-bullying initiative, she grumbled privately about all the “Christmas stuff” she was forced to oversee. She was almost entirely missing from the campaign trail for large swaths of Trump’s bid to reclaim the presidency last year.
This time around, Melania Trump has been even more private and less inclined to spend time at the White House. During the first 100 days of this administration, according to The New York Times, she spent fewer than 14 days there. She’s massively downsized her staff compared with the first term, with CNN reporting “only five full-time staff members as of July.” Much of the work the first lady normally does as a steward of the White House and its decor has been overtaken by the president, including the decision to slap gold on anything and everything.
If the move back to the Executive Mansion becomes permanent, it would be a regressive move that literally moves the Office of the First Lady away from the office and back into the home.
Melania Trump has infrequently shown up, though, at White House events that hold her interest. Last month she appeared first at an artificial intelligence education task force meeting, telling the attendees that “the robots are here” and that “it is our duty to treat AI as we would our own children — empowering, but with watchful guidance.” (She should know, having used an AI version of her voice to narrate her memoir.) And earlier this month, she held a press conference to announce progress on a behind-the-scenes push to reunite Ukrainian children abducted from their families during the Russian invasion.
For now, according to CNN, the first lady’s reduced staff “and the social office — which oversees major events at the White House — are now inside the executive mansion, split between the Vermeil Room, the South Mezzanine, the Library and the China Room.” None of those, you’ll note, are rooms designed to be worked out of for any length of time. And as of Thursday evening, it was unclear whether permanent office space for the first lady has been incorporated into the designs for the 90,000-square-foot ballroom set to occupy the former East Wing’s grounds.
If the move back to the Executive Mansion becomes permanent, it would be a regressive move that literally moves the Office of the First Lady away from the office and back into the home. It would at least be an on-brand decision from a White House that has rapidly rolled back decades of women’s rights and empowerment. But the lack of comment at all from Melania Trump on that shift underscores that, much like her husband, she has little interest in how her choices affect anyone other than herself.