As Donald Trump was flying back from Scotland, he revealed how he had discussed the horrific images of starving children in Gaza with his wife, the first lady.
“She thinks it’s terrible,” he told The Telegraph aboard Air Force One.
“She sees the same pictures that you see and we all see. Everybody, unless they are pretty cold-hearted or worse than that, nuts … there’s nothing you can say other than it’s terrible when you see the kids.”
Melania Trump has kept a low profile during her husband’s second term. Her rare appearances at the White House have sparked “Where’s Melania?” headlines and questions about whether she is a part-time first lady.
But her influence can be spotted in Mr Trump’s policies, and she is credited by insiders for being the “quiet force” behind the president’s tougher stance on Russia.
For Melania, it is not a new role.
The Telegraph can reveal that she was a key factor in Mr Trump’s decision to launch air strikes on Syria during his first term following a chemical weapons attack by the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
A former White House official said she was horrified by videos of children dying in Khan Shaykun in 2017 and impressed upon her husband the need to act.
Mr Trump abandoned his campaign promises not to intervene in Syria’s civil war, and launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea at a government airbase in Syria.
It was the first time that the US acknowledged striking Assad targets.
The former official said Mrs Trump was highly influential in the decision.
“I think she reacts to human suffering as a mom, without a policy or political filter, and shares her gut reaction with her husband,” they said.
Katherine Jellison, a history professor at Ohio University and an expert in the role of first ladies, said Mrs Trump was performing her role in a highly unconventional way, rejecting the traditional role of simply appearing beside her husband at public events.
Her approach may mean she is underestimated by the media and public at times.
“It may be that she does have more influence on her husband’s thinking about issues than the general public might initially recognise because they seem to have this very traditional marriage in terms of gender role: He’s the boss. She’s the helpmate,” she said.
“But I think there has to be more to her than that, in that she has gone her own way a number of times.”
Mrs Trump, 55, was born Melanija Knavs in the part of Yugoslavia that is now Slovenia.
She launched her career as a fashion model at the age of 16, and met her future husband in 1998, when she was 28. Mr Trump was recently separated from Marla Maples, his second wife.
They married seven years later and their son, Barron, was born in 2006.
She was an unconventional first lady from the start, being only the second foreign-born woman to hold the position (after England-born Louisa Adams) and the first to have once appeared naked on the front cover of a magazine.
She did things her own way during Mr Trumps’ first term, waiting for five months to move down to Washington DC from New York so Barron could finish his school year, and broke with her husband over family separations at detention facilities at the southern border.
She made headlines in 2018 with a jacket she wore during a visit to see migrant children separated from their families. “I really don’t care,” read a statement on the back, “do u?”
It caused an uproar on social media as commentators pondered its meaning.
Mrs Trump later said it was a message to reporters who used anonymous sources to undermine her.
“In fact, I decided to let them know that their criticism would never stop me from doing what I feel is right,” she said in her 2024 memoir, entitled Melania.
She also used her book, published a month before the election, to speak up for abortion access. It marked a clear break with much of the Republican Party and her husband, who had taken a more conservative stance.
“Some people, they see me as just the wife of the president, but I’m standing on my own two feet, independent. I have my own thoughts,” she told Fox News ahead of Mr Trump’s second inauguration.
“I don’t always agree [with] what my husband is saying or doing, and that’s OK.”
Mr Trump recently described his wife’s influence when it came to the conflict in Ukraine, describing her sceptical take on Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, and his warm words.
“I go home, I tell the first lady: ‘I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation,’” Mr Trump said. “She said: ‘Oh really? Another city was just hit.’”
That turned her into an immediate heroine in Ukraine.
She was nicknamed “Agent Melania Trumpenko” and memes quickly spread showing Ukrainian iconography on her clothing.
Prof Jellison added that Melania was often underestimated in public because of her heavily accented English.
“It wouldn’t surprise me that she does have some differing opinions, and might assert those to her husband behind closed doors and might have an influence on his thinking,” she said.
The first lady’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
For her part, Mrs Trump told GQ in 2016 that she had plenty of opinions and shared them with her husband.
“Nobody knows and nobody will ever know,” she said about the advice she gives him… “Because that’s between me and my husband.”
Melania Trump Reportedly Called Ivanka Trump And Jared Kushner ‘Snakes’ In Angry Text, Former Aide Reveals: ‘Tense Relationship’
Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump are both very important people in Donald Trump’s life, but that’s about where their similarities end. Neither woman is a big fan of the other, and according to reports, petty jabs have been taken on both sides. A former aide of Melania’s even revealed that some fighting words had been exchanged. Keep reading for more information.
Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump are both very important people in Donald Trump’s life, but that’s about where their similarities end. Neither woman is a big fan of the other, and according to reports, petty jabs have been taken on both sides. A former aide of Melania’s even revealed that some fighting words had been exchanged. Keep reading for more information.
Operation Block Ivanka
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff was a close confidante of Melania Trump throughout the first Trump Administration, and in 2020, she released a memoir shedding light on what went down inside those White House walls. Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship With the First Lady details many instances of Melania and Ivanka not getting along. According to Stephanie, she and Melania had a private initiative they called “Operation Block Ivanka” that sought to make sure Ivanka was hidden from the press during Trump’s 2016 inauguration.
“We were able to figure out whose face would be visible when Donald and Melania sat in their seats, and then when the family stood with Chief Justice John Roberts for Donald to take the oath of office,” Stephanie wrote. “If Ivanka was not on the aisle, her face would be hidden while she was seated.”
The reason for this pettiness? Stephanie claimed Melania summed it up with one six-word text: “You know how they are snakes,” Melania allegedly said of Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner.
Melania & Ivanka Butted Heads During First Administration
While Melania was one of the less-involved First Ladies that America has seen, that apparently did not mean she wasn’t proud of the title. According to an insider, though Melania may have made it seem like she didn’t care, “she was privately obsessed with any mention of herself in the media. It was a role she felt was rightfully hers—and she wasn’t going to see Ivanka take it from her!”
However, according to this source, Melania not only felt threatened, but was a bit afraid as well. “She avoided [Ivanka’s] East Wing office for the entire presidency for fear she’d run into Ivanka,” the source continued.
This was reportedly an issue throughout all of Trump’s presidency. Melania was annoyed by Ivanka’s presence “in the Oval Office for important discussions,” as it prompted the press to talk about her “as if she was first lady,” the source explained.
Melania’s feelings about the situation weren’t unguided, though. According to Katie Rogers, author of American Woman: The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hilary Clinton to Jill Biden, Ivanka wanted some of that first lady power. When Melania didn’t immediately move into the White House when Trump was elected in order to stay with their son, Barron, in New York, Ivanka wanted to turn Melania’s office into an area “geared toward serving the entire First Family, not just the First Lady.”
And Donald Trump supported this idea. “She was aware that her husband had suggested that his eldest daughter would be helping to share the responsibilities of being First Lady,” Rogers continued. “And this was not a development that pleased her.”
Renaming the Kennedy Center for Donald and Melania Trump would violate the law that created it
The Kennedy Center can’t include new memorials or plaques — for donors or presidents — under U.S. law. Republicans would need to change that to rename it for the Trumps.
WASHINGTON — House Republican proposals to name the Kennedy Center after President Donald Trump and its opera house after first lady Melania Trump would violate the law by which the Kennedy Center was created, four sources familiar with the issue told NBC News.
Republicans last week passed an amendment through committee that would rename the opera house after Melania Trump, saying it was a way to recognize her support for and commitment to the arts. The measure, sponsored by GOP Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, is now part of key legislation to fund the Interior Department, but it would still need to pass through the full House and the Senate to become law.
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The next day, Rep. Bob Onder, R-Mo., introduced the “Make Entertainment Great Again Act” to rename the whole center the “Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts.” The House has not yet taken any action on it.
Three former board members for the Kennedy Center told NBC News that the law creating the center prohibited any of the facilities from being renamed, other than the Eisenhower Theater, after the president whose administration first authorized its construction in 1958. The project stalled and was revived under President John F. Kennedy, whose family led an effort to get the center built and named in his honor following his assassination. Two months later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the legislation making it a living memorial to Kennedy.
According to U.S. code, “After December 2, 1983, no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.”
Republicans would have to pass legislation to change that. “Legally, they can’t just slap her name on it without congressional action,” said a spokesperson for Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, the lead Democrat on the Appropriations subcommittee on the interior.
“If Republicans can’t pass their budget — which they usually can’t — the Melania Trump renaming provision dies,” the spokesperson continued. “The only real wildcard is whether Trump or his allies ignore the law entirely and try to do it unilaterally. But that would have no legal basis — and would almost certainly trigger a court fight.”
A spokesperson for Simpson said the White House and the first lady’s office were not aware of his amendment before he offered it, nor was Trump-appointed Kennedy Center President Ric Grenell. The first lady’s office did call Simpson’s office to say thank you afterward, the spokesperson said. The White House declined to comment.
Simpson sponsored the amendment because “he understands that the first lady has always been a very avid supporter of the arts as well. She’s had a long-standing commitment to the arts. … It really did come from his heart.”
As for the chance the amendment could die in the appropriations process, the Simpson spokesperson said it could “definitely” make it through in a short-term funding bill, known as a “continuing resolution,” later in the year.
The first lady is the honorary chair of the center, following tradition. But in a striking departure from their practice during the first Trump term, when they did not attend events there, reacting to widespread criticism of his policies by prominent artists, this year the president has shown a great interest in the arts. He has named himself the Kennedy Center chairman and fired the previous bipartisan Board of Trustees, along with its veteran president, Deborah Rutter, and its chairman, David M. Rubenstein. Rubenstein had donated $111 million and was the center’s biggest individual donor, the center said.
Trump replaced Rutter with Grenell, his White House special envoy and former ambassador to Germany. Trump wrote on social media that Grenell “shares my Vision for a GOLDEN AGE of American Arts and Culture” and would ensure there was no more “ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA.”
In particular, Trump objected to a drag show, which he found offensive, among the 2,200 events the Kennedy Center typically produces in a year. He also told reporters on Air Force One in February, “We don’t need woke at the Kennedy Center.”
In addition to firing 18 of the 36 board members whom President Joe Biden appointed for six-year terms, the Trump administration has ordered different programming. Notably, there are also now four large portraits of the first and second couples in the center’s Hall of Nations, the main entryway to the facility. Until this year, the public spaces included only a bronze bust of President John F. Kennedy.
Trump’s recently enacted domestic spending bill also included more than $250 million to renovate the facility, more than six times the previous $43 million federal subsidy that was earmarked for operations and maintenance, not programming. The center also removed all references to diversity, equity and inclusion from its website.
The opera house, with more than 2,300 seats, is the center’s second-largest theater and the venue for the institution’s signature annual concert for cultural honorees, the Kennedy Center Honors — a formal event and major fundraiser launched in 1978 and attended by all the former first couples, except the Trumps, and recorded every December for broadcast by CBS. The gala, star-studded weekend in the nation’s capital every holiday season has, in the past, always included a Sunday afternoon awards ceremony hosted by the president and the first lady at the White House and a celebratory Saturday night dinner at the State Department hosted by the secretary of state.
During his first term, the Trumps did not host the Sunday ceremony or attend the concert after some of the honorees said they would not attend the White House event in opposition to some of the Trump policies and his controversial comments about the white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, that year. Past honorees have included a broad spectrum of actors, musicians and other performers.
The Trumps attended a performance of “Les Misérables” in the opera house in June, and some members of the audience booed their arrival. Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha, were also booed when attending a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra.
President Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg posted strong criticism of the opera house’s renaming proposal last week. Schlossberg, Caroline Kennedy’s son, wrote, “JFK believed the arts made our country great and could be our most effective weapon in the fight for civil rights and against authoritarian governments around the world,” adding, “The Trump administration stands for freedom of oppression, not expression.”
Melania Trump Attacked in Russian State Media
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A Russian newspaper has disparaged Melania Trump as Kremlin-backed media speculate about whether the first lady is behind President Donald Trump‘s Ukraine policy.
Pro-Kremlin newspaper Vzglyad said “it would be better for him [Trump] to buy her shoes than to sell Patriots (missiles) to Kyiv” in an op-ed Monday that described the first lady as a “danger to Russia.”
Russian state TV has also taken aim at Melania Trump, saying she is responsible for the U.S. president’s apparently tougher stance toward Putin which has seen him pledge more weapons for Kyiv and threaten more sanctions on Moscow.
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via email outside of regular office hours.
Why It Matters
After months of expressing how Trump can serve Moscow’s interests, Kremlin propagandists have changed their tone, especially after the U.S. president pledged more weapons for Ukraine and threatened more sanctions on Moscow.
A focus for Kremlin media in recent days has been Trump’s comments about his unhappiness with Putin, as well as his references to remarks Melania Trump made about the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
What To Know
In an article on Monday headlined, “Melania Trumpenko’s danger to Russia underestimated,” Vzgylad referred to the moniker given to the first lady over her alleged “significant” role in her husband’s policy with regards to Ukraine.
The paper described how the U.S. president had told reporters how his wife would tell him another city in Ukraine had been shelled soon after he had spoken with Putin.
Modified photos of the first lady with attached Ukrainian iconography on her clothing have formed social media memes in recent days.
“It would be better for him to buy her shoes than to sell Patriots to Kyiv. It would be cheaper,” the paper added referring to the missile system that President Trump said can be provided to Ukraine.
Russian state TV has also taken a swipe at the first lady.
In front of revealing years-old images of Melania Trump which Russian TV has used before to disparage her, anchor of 60 Minutes, Olga Skabeyeva, described the first lady as a “Ukrainian agent.”
Skabeyeva then outlined U.K. newspaper reports that she was behind her husband’s tougher line on Putin, in the clip posted by Russia watcher Julia Davis.
One of her guests, Moscow-based political scientist Malek Dudakov downplayed her role and said that the couple “has certain marital problems,” and “doesn’t even live with Trump.”
In May, the White House described claims by political biographer Michael Wolff that the couple was separated as “blatant lies and fabrications.”
What People Are Saying
Russian newspaper Vzglyad: “Melania Trumpenko’s danger to Russia is underestimated…One way or another, Melania is now a symbol of new hope for Ukrainians.”
Russian state TV anchor Olga Skabeyeva: “Melania Trump whom conspiracy theorists previously considered to be a Kremlin spy….suddenly became a Ukrainian agent, Melania Trumpenko.”
Trump said during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, per USA Today: “I go home, I tell the first lady, ‘You know, I spoke to Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation.’ And she said, ‘Oh really? Another city was just hit,'”
What Happens Next
While Ukraine has welcomed Trump’s pledge for weaponry and Patriot missile defense systems to Ukraine through NATO, Russia continues to bombard Ukrainian cities.
Meanwhile, the prospect of peace talks, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested could take place this week, remain unlikely amid reports that Putin retains his maximalist demands in the war he started.
‘Oh really?’: Trump says his wife Melania has some thoughts on Vladimir Putin
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump says his wife, first lady Melania Trump, has emphasized to him privately that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s continued attacks on Ukraine contradict the rosy picture the Russian leader often presents in phone calls with her husband.
While discussing new actions and threats aimed at pressuring Moscow to agree to a ceasefire deal, Trump twice on July 14 referenced remarks that Melania Trump ‒ who tends to keep a low profile ‒ has made to him in private about Russia’s attacks.
“I go home, I tell the first lady, ‘You know, I spoke to Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation.’ And she said, ‘Oh really? Another city was just hit,'” Trump said during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office.
About an hour later, Trump told a similar story at a luncheon with the White House Faith Office, as he recounted the numerous times he thought a Russia-Ukraine peace deal was imminent.
“I’d get home, I’d say, ‘First lady, I had the most wonderful talk with Vladimir. I think we’re finished.’ And then I’ll turn on the television, or she’ll say to me one time, ‘Wow, that’s strange because they just bombed a nursing home,'” Trump said, prompting laughs among the crowd at the White House State Dining Room.
Growing increasingly frustrated by Putin, Trump on Monday threatened to impose 100% tariffs on Russia and its trading partners if a ceasefire is not reached in 50 days. He also pledged that the United States would send weapons to NATO to assist in Ukraine’s war efforts.
“I’m disappointed in President Putin because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn’t seem to get there,” said Trump, continuing his recent criticism of the Russian president.
Trump said Putin is a “tough guy” who has “fooled a lot of people” over the years, but “he didn’t fool me.” The president indicated he’s weary of fruitless negotiations and said he wants “action.”
Melania Trump, a native of Slovenia, typically refrains from weighing in publicly on political and international affairs. Like she did during her husband’s first term in office, she has often been absent from the White House since Trump’s return to Washington.
Melania Trump last Friday joined her husband during a visit to Central Texas to meet with families of victims who died in recent devastating floods there. The first couple also attended Sunday’s FIFA Club World Cup together at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Melania Trump’s Absence Looms Large as the White House Undergoes $200M Ballroom Makeover
President Donald Trump has long complained about the accommodations at the White House, so he’s getting his wish with a major addition. But what people aren’t talking about enough is that the construction completely displaces First Lady Melania Trump and her staff for a significant amount of time.
On July 31, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the administration would be adding a $200 million ballroom paid for by the president and anonymous donors. “We are proud to announce that the construction of the new White House ballroom will begin. For 150 years, presidents, administrations, and White House staff have longed for a large event space on the White House complex that can hold substantially more guests than currently allowed,” Leavitt said in the press room.
“The White House is one of the most beautiful and historic buildings in the world, yet the White House is currently unable to host major functions honoring world leaders in other countries without having to install a large and unsightly tent approximately 100 yards away from the main building’s entrance,” she added.
The construction is expected to begin in September, and Leavitt promised that the work will be completed before Donald Trump ends his term in January 2029. While the Daily Beast noted that Melania’s offices will be “temporarily” relocated, her notable absence is felt. She has been “opting to spend her time in New York or Florida and only showing up for a select few White House events.”
In November 2024, after Donald Trump won the election, political insiders believed Melania was going to take a relatively hands-off approach to the first lady office for Donald Trump’s second administration. “She has carte blanche – she can be as active in the East Wing or as inactive as she cares to be,” Kate Bennett, author of Free, Melania, told CNN.
Kate Andersen Brower, the author of First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies, shared similar thoughts to The New York Times in July 2023. “She’s the most obviously unknowable first lady,” she explained. “First ladies are expected to want to please people, and I’m not sure she really cares.”
So, Melania’s temporary relocation probably won’t be an issue for her while the ballroom gets built. She prefers to spend time with her son, Barron, 19, at Trump Tower while he’s attending New York University. She also knows that the American public really isn’t anticipating her at every political event — she set the precedent for that years ago.
“I’m not anxious because this time is different. I have much more experience and much more knowledge. I was in the White House before,” she said confidently to Fox News in October 2024. When you go in, you know exactly what to expect.”
Let the construction begin because Melania will likely be unbothered by the office displacement situation.
Fact Check: Old photo of Barron Trump sitting on Melania’s lap and taking her picture makes rounds online
A photo repeatedly shared online authentically showed Barron Trump taking a picture of his mother, Melania Trump, while sitting on her lap.
For more than a year, a photo has circulated online purportedly showing a young Barron Trump, the youngest son of U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, taking his mother’s picture while sitting on her lap.
One Bluesky user who shared the photograph in mid-July 2025 said it was evidence of “generational depravity” in the Trump family (archived).
Throughout the month, it appeared elsewhere on Bluesky (archived), in numerous Threads posts (archived, archived) and on X (archived). It also cropped up on social media throughout 2024.
Some X users questioned the optics of the image because of how Melania’s hands were placed on Barron’s legs and how he was sitting on her thighs. Others asked whether the picture was real or generated using artificial intelligence. Another X user even declared that it was fake.
However, the photo was real and was found in the Getty Images library; therefore, we have rated this claim as true.
It was captured in early January 2016 — when Barron was 9 — during a photo shoot at Trump Tower in New York City and was credited to Regine Mahaux, according to the Getty caption:
NEW YORK – JANUARY 06: Barron Trump is using the new FUJIFILM instax mini 90 as he and Melania Trump are photographed at Trump Tower on January 6, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Regine Mahaux/MT2016/Contour by Getty Images)
Similar photos showing the mother and son in different poses during the shoot were also in Getty’s library.
The picture resurfaced as numerous other old photos of the Trump family, and photographs of Donald Trump and deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, reappeared on social media following the release of a July 7, 2025, Department of Justice memo stating that a DOJ review found no incriminating “client list” related to Epstein and no credible evidence that he had blackmailed prominent people.
