Melania’s Trials

Outside my office, there is a picture of the Slovenian Sphinx visiting the Egyptian Sphinx, taken during a 2018 photo shoot in Giza, nine months after Melania Trump was blindsided by the steamy news about her husband and Stormy Daniels.

The pairing evokes the riddle of Melania: How much can she put up with from a husband who betrayed and humiliated her in the basest possible ways?

As Donald Trump’s hush-money trial begins, we’ll be reminded of what a heel he is. And like Hillary before her, Melania will have to hold her head high as she stands by her Lothario. Melania will also put political and personal prospects above mere resentment. (She doesn’t want Donald broke and in jail.)

As her White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham wrote in her memoir, Melania wanted no Hillary comparisons. When the Other Women stories broke, Melania told Grisham she wanted to drive to Air Force One ahead of Trump.

“I do not want to be like Hillary Clinton, do you understand what I mean?” Melania said, according to Grisham. “She walked to Marine One holding the hands with her husband after Monica news and it did not look good.”

Hillary was able to use her husband’s infidelities to redefine herself with a more sympathetic aura and slingshot to a Senate seat.