Goodbye, Melania

Melania Trump will be best remembered for her icy expressions, her glossy outfits and enormous belts, and, perhaps, her anti-bullying campaign. Her term began with a speech that plagiarized former first lady Michelle Obama and ended with taped remarks revealing that she thought the children in detention centers who’d been separated from their families were “taken care of nicely there.” The tape also revealed that she loathed decorating the White House for Christmas, which came as a surprise to admirers of the looming blood-red conifers with which she lined the merry halls. But it’s hard to rely on anything she says; Melania has lied about everything from getting a bachelor’s degree to speaking five languages to the significance of her “I Really Don’t Care Do U” jacket—which she wore as a publicity stunt while visiting desperate children whom the Trump administration had separated from their families. Thanks to revelations made by her former friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, we do know the sorts of things Melania did care about: calculating camera angles so as to keep Ivanka Trump out of frame during Donald Trump’s inauguration in what they called “Operation Block Ivanka.” Small-minded, petulant, and petty, the best thing we can say about the first lady is that she occasionally appears to dislike her husband almost as much as the rest of us do. This last part wasn’t true: Back in 1999, when Trump ran for president, Melania Trump fantasized in interviews about being the next Jackie Kennedy.