Melania, are you free yet? | The HuffPost Life

The look with which Melania Trump left the White House this Wednesday was a declaration of intent. The former first lady of the United States left with her husband, Donald Trump, dressed in mourning (in contrast to a huge smile), and landed in Florida with much more festive colors. A symbol of the liberation that her departure has meant for her.

He feels so, so free, that he has already distanced himself (further) from the former president, as many have interpreted. Here the proof:

A new rudeness, like the many slights and bad faces that she has directed at her husband and that divorce rumors have increased, as happened in November.

So, it was already known that the next one to occupy the presidential residence would be Joe Biden, and Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former adviser to Donald Trump, assured that Melania was “counting the minutes” to divorce the tycoon, and that her Plans to do so date back to the beginning of her legislature in 2016. If she did not do it before, it was because her husband would "punish in some way" that "humiliation".

The lack of love from the Trumps has always been vox populi for those awkward moments in their public appearances. To this is added the list of alleged lovers of the tycoon, including Karen McDougal, who assured that she took him to Melania's bedroom in 2006, shortly after her son was born.

Even Trump himself admitted in 2019 that he believes his wife would not cry if she was shot in an assassination attempt. Nor does it seem that Melania has received much attention from her husband, according to what she recounted in 2005. The Republican assured that with so much work, the last thing she wanted when she got home was to "work on a relationship." .

The couple have long slept in separate rooms, as CNN reporter Kate Bennett recounted in Melania, Free: The Unauthorized Biography, and during her stay at the presidential residence she rarely showed up at the Wing West. In fact, her bedroom was on the second floor, in which she led a practically independent life that she will be able to maintain in Florida, where she also has her own space in the mansion.

Perhaps Melania will give more details of all this in her memoirs. The 50-year-old ex-model is negotiating with a publisher for the publication of the book, focused on her four years as first lady, as published by Page Six. This project could further prolong her agony of getting caught up in the marriage, because Donald Trump would have given his approval for the release of this authorized biography.

What a divorce would mean

Some international media interpret the Slovenian's secrecy as confirmation of the divorce of a 15-year marriage that has been classified as transactional and they are considering what their post-Trump stage will be like.

Melania has been farsighted and has kept her back. In the event of a divorce, the financial future of her and her son Barron (14 years old) would be assured. The couple signed a prenuptial agreement that was modified just before she arrived in Washington: it took her five months to move into the White House for the renegotiation, while Trump was already installed there.

The official excuse for being late was that their common son, who was then 10 years old, finished the school year. However, Washington Post journalist Mary Jordan debunked this in her unauthorized biography of The Art of Her Deal. In it, he says that the new clauses of the prenuptial contract benefit the former first lady and guarantee that Barron will benefit as much as his four brothers in the distribution of his father's fortune.

Melania could pocket 50 million dollars, in addition to keeping custody of her son, if she were to divorce, according to the Mirror. If the former model decided to prolong the marriage, she could renegotiate the prenuptial agreement to include penalty clauses for misconduct, such as Donald's alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, the newspaper notes.

What will you do now

While the divorce is not a given, the Trumps have settled in Palm Beach, Florida, in the recently renovated Mar-a-Lago mansion. According to People magazine, Melania is looking for a school for her son there. Their new residence is the same house in which they were married in 2005, a National Historic Monument with 118 rooms and which has a private golf club. With so many rooms, it's easy to avoid meeting faces.

While Donald Trump is busy enough with his business emporium —especially after having lost 900 million euros in the last four years—, the first lady with the hieratic smile has been freed from obligations by getting rid of her institutional agenda and no longer has to pretend any role. And now that?

The media have ruled out that Melania is going to create an organization for the protection of children and to support the military and their families, a cause in which she was involved during her duties as first lady. Something that contrasts with the rest of the wives of former presidents, who tend to continue to be involved in the matters in which they showed interest during their stay in the White House.

At the moment, she is only expected to help design Trump's presidential library, as her husband suggested. It is the repository that preserves the papers, files, collections and other historical materials of each of the presidents of the United States.

Six years before she became first lady, Melania Trump launched her own line of jewelry (Melania Timepieces and Jewelry), as well as a collection of skin care lotions. In 2017, when she was already residing in the White House, the companies with which she worked to market both collections broke her relationship with her.

His frustrated desire to return to New York

Several US media outlets claimed a few weeks ago that she would most likely return to New York, as she wanted, where the couple lived before settling in the White House.

However, the Trumps are not welcome in the city, as Mayor Bill de Blasio made clear when announcing that he will cancel the contracts with Trump's company —related to the tourism sector— due to the assault on the Capitol promoted by for the republican

“New York City does not do business with insurgents.”

These contracts represent income for the Trump Organization of about 14 million euros. The City Council can afford the termination with a company if its manager has carried out "criminal activities".

In addition, his popularity in New York was already touched and plummeted when Trump referred to it as an “anarchist city”. For this reason, at the moment it seems that Melania's wishes will not be fulfilled and she will have to stay in Palm Beach with the former president and her son in common.

His lousy relationship with Ivanka Trump

Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, have the doors of Mar-a-Lago closed while Melania resides in the Florida mansion. The relationship of the former president's right eye with his wife is icy. Sources close to Ivanka told CNN that "her relationship with her stepmother is in shambles." The origin of the enmity, Stephanie Wolkooff points out, is in a clash of egos.

According to an article in The Washington Post, Melania had to work hard to make herself known as a model, while Ivanka did not. Tensions, they say, exist from the beginning because of this.

In addition, it seems that Melania dashed Ivanka's illusion of becoming the most important woman in the White House, and Melania privately refers to her as a "princess" in a pejorative tone. Ivanka's desire to gain prominence was so intense that she would have proposed changing the name of the Office of the First Lady to the Office of the First Family, but Melania did not allow it.

Little is known about Melania's relationship with the rest of Trump's children. It is another of the many unknowns of her hermetic life. Given the horizon of the life of the former first lady, no one breaks the 'Free Melania' sign for the moment.