The Unbearable Awkwardness of Being Melania

Renee Graham: “Melania has seemed more reluctant than most women thrust into this odd, undefined space. There’s no indication that she’s a calming influence on her erratic husband or his chaotic presidency, which seems the most basic thing the nation could want from this first lady.”

“Make no mistake: Melania is not a hostage. She is a grown woman who has made her choices — terrible ones, no doubt — but, for her own reasons, she continues to live with the embarrassing consequences. The Trumps don’t have a marriage so much as an assembly line of gifs and memes ready made for social media.”

“Michelle Obama once said that ‘the presidency doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.’ That observation is also applicable to presidential couples. Nothing about the Trump presidency adheres to protocol or decorum. Neither, it appears, does the first couple, with their marital dysfunction on display while the whole world — however reluctantly — is watching.”