The bold warning to Melania Trump’s critics hidden in her new official White House portrait

In 2017 it took almost three months for the White House to release an official portrait of the new First Lady who in a significant break from tradition had yet to move permanently into the executive mansion. 

Amidst swirling rumours that Melania’s relocation was contingent upon (from her view) successful renegotiation of her pre-nup, she was a largely absent figure in the Trump eco-system, and certainly a peripheral presence as the administration crafted its public image. 

Fast forward four years and this time things, like so much else in Trump 2.0, look very different. Less than twenty-four hours after watching her husband be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, Melania found herself, bags already unpacked, standing in front of her long-time photographer Regine Mahaux in the distinctive Yellow Oval Room, supposedly one of Melania’s favorite’s, posing for a picture that even for more traditionally minded presidential consorts rarely appears with such haste. 

Like the bombardment of executive orders and policy announcements that sprang from the West Wing in opening hours of the new administration, Melania’s lightning-fast pictorial statement – in bold black and white (another barrier breaking feature of the image) – makes clear that she too realizes that not only is there no time to waste in declaring herself part of a presidential triumvirate (she is picture three in the line-up after her husband and his vice-president on the White House homepage).

But this also signals that Melania is ready to take on the kind of powerful White House role that she so clearly shunned the first time round.

Take for instance her choice to wear Dolce & Gabbana. While nothing new in that nor in her decision to opt for one of the brand’s iconic tuxedos – she’d opted for both in her 2017 picture (earning her one of her only designer endorsements) – in this new iteration we find none of the glitzy cocktail glamour that was at this point in her fashion evolution a hallmark, and which the soft hues and subtle smile of the previous picture embodied. 

Instead, Melania is captured in an ensemble that was literally a home-office style staple during her first tenure – one worn almost daily as she went about work in the White House that whatever her critics say was not without significance. 

Replacing the sequin beaded foulard that had been tied artfully around her neck with a crisp white cotton shirt left suggestively open at the neck, she also cannily eschewed in this iteration any jewelry, ensuring that the viewer’s eye (and of course subsequent critique) revolves firmly around the woman – rather than jaw-dropping D-flawless emerald cut diamond ring that featured prominently in First Lady Melania Part 1. An essential accessory for any Upper East Side trophy wife (this one is Graff, 25 carats, bought by Donald in 2015 as a ten-year anniversary gift for a reported $3 million) – Melania seems to be making it plain that she no longer needs that kind of one-dimensional validation. 

A bold, confident, disciplined and always, sharply tailored boss was the Melania that the public got today and, up until now, was a woman that only those who worked closest with her were allowed to see. 

Melania and President Donald Trump are pictured at the Liberty Ball during the 60th Presidential Inauguration last week

Captured by the same photographer who in 2017 clearly felt a need to create a public gloss of the private individual, this was the answer to the ‘Free Melania’ movement of years earlier. While trusted stylist Herve Pierre was doubtlessly on hand for the important moment, advising, tweaking and adding the precision perfection that only a master of haute couture can offer – this was really Melania standing on her own sartorial and professional two feet. 

While some may be disappointed not to have had more of a glimpse of the new Trump family home (getting only the southwest window of the ornate and overtly feminine reception space) – I think we actually got something far more interesting.

Like Melania’s surprise decision to travel with her husband to disaster struck North Carolina and California, Melania is sending all the signals that she is ready and eager for the presidential platform. 

Like President Trump, emboldened and confident, Melania seems ready to give what Americans have asked for.