Melania Trump: The first lady who makes her own rules

Ahead of her husband's second inauguration, Melania Trump wanted to get a few things straight.

"Maybe people see me as just a wife of the president," she said, in an interview with Fox News. "But I'm standing on my own two feet, independent. I have my own thoughts."

Just before the election, Mrs Trump released her memoir. Later this year, she will be the focus of an Amazon documentary series she says will let viewers follow her journey back into the White House.

Like her husband, Donald Trump, Mrs Trump doesn't play by the rules. When he was first elected in 2016, she approached her own role very differently to her recent predecessors, spending a lot of time away from the White House.

"She was the lowest profile first lady we've had for a long time - I would go back to Bess Truman in the 1940s and early 1950s," says Katherine Jellison, a history professor at Ohio University and an expert in the role of first ladies.

For more than 100 years, most first ladies were quietly supportive, acting as official hostesses. Those who took on public service projects did so mainly in the background. Eleanor Roosevelt, supporting her husband Franklin D Roosevelt in 1933, ushered in a significant shift towards a higher-profile role.

"During her time as first lady, 12 years, that became an expectation," says Professor Jellison. Mrs Truman did not emulate her predecessor, she adds, but "from Jacqueline Kennedy in the early '60s onward, every first lady has had at least one major high-profile public service project".

While traditions have been shaped by the women in the role over the years, the role is undefined in the American constitution. First ladies can spend as much - or as little - time at the White House, and supporting the president's duties, as they wish.

Having been there before, Mrs Trump knows exactly what to expect. "She didn't feel she was treated well by the press in the first term," Professor Jellison says. "She felt that people were jumping on every perceived misstep. And so I think she will probably want to make herself less of a target this time in terms of her husband's critics and in terms of critics in the press."

But other experts say there is a sense things might be a little different this time around.

"We've already seen a little bit more of her, more interviews, more confidence," says Anita McBride, former chief of staff to Laura Bush, who now runs the First Ladies Initiative at American University in Washington DC, and has written several books on the subject.

"Many of the household staff are still there, she has a familiarity with the place. There's not this overwhelming sense of having to walk through this for the first time."

'The last time, it was a pretty hostile environment'

Mrs Trump has said she will not be defined by expectations of what the role should be. "She will define what she wants to do and I think that sets a tone," Ms McBride says.

And this time round, public sentiment may be different. In 2016, there was fascination and criticism from some quarters about a model, particularly a model who had posed naked during her career, entering the White House.

If that view wasn't antiquated then, it certainly seems it now. And this time, Mr Trump goes into the presidency after increasing his vote share in 90% of US counties, compared with the 2020 election. He is also only the second Republican since 1988 to win the popular vote.

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"The last time she was here, she was here in a pretty hostile environment. It made it very hard... even her Christmas decorations were criticised," says Ms McBride. "I think this is a very different environment now."

In doing things her own way, Mrs Trump may have "hoped to establish a new precedent, actually making it a little bit easier for anyone that comes after her," she adds.

"Were Americans ready for that? Not really, because they've come to expect that you're there from day one with the president. But we have seen how people in this position have tried to use it in a way that fits them best."

Indeed, Jill Biden, who followed Mrs Trump, also broke from tradition, becoming the first woman to continue her professional career outside the White House while serving as first lady.

Mrs Trump, 54, was born Melanija Knavs in what was then part of Yugoslavia, now Slovenia. She began working as a fashion model at 16, and met her future husband at a Fashion Week party in 1998, when she was 28. At the time, he had recently separated from his second wife, Marla Maples.

They wed in 2005, and their son, Barron, was born in 2006. Now 18 and a freshman at New York University, he will have a room for when he visits the White House.

During Mr Trump's first term, Mrs Trump remained in New York with Barron and sought to maintain her privacy, staying largely out of the spotlight.

However, when she did appear in public, there were a few occasions when she gave an insight into her personality. In June 2018, she made headlines thanks to a jacket worn on a visit to see migrant children separated from their parents, which featured the statement "I really don't care, do u?" emblazoned on the back.

At the time, her spokesperson said there was no hidden message and that Mrs Trump hoped the media would not "focus on her wardrobe" during such an important trip. However, Mrs Trump later said the jacket was a statement that any criticism she receives will not stop her from doing "what I feel is right".

In terms of charity work, she used her platform to launch the Be Best initiative, which focused on childhood wellbeing and social media use. But this also came under fire, with critics highlighting Mr Trump's social media use and how it sometimes did not match the campaign's anti-bullying message.

She gave her final farewell speech as she left her role in January 2021, less than two weeks after the Capitol riots which saw crowds storming the building in an effort to block the certification of Joe Biden's election win, after her husband claimed the vote had been rigged. "Violence is never the answer," Mrs Trump told Americans ahead of Mr Biden's inauguration.

After years under the microscope during his presidency, she chose, in the main, to remain in the background as her husband campaigned to gain power pack. While she attended his campaign launch event for the 2024 election, as well as the closing night of the Republican National Convention in the summer, she otherwise stayed away from the campaign trail.

She did, however, release a statement following the high-profile assassination attempt on her husband in July, describing the attacker as a "monster" and urging Americans to "ascend above the hate, the vitriol, and the simple-minded ideas that ignite violence".

In an interview a few months later, she blamed the Democrats and mainstream media for "fuelling a toxic atmosphere" and empowering those who "want to do harm" to her husband.

Her memoir followed a month later, and now she is planning the upcoming documentary. She has also said she plans to revitalise Be Best, despite the criticism she received before.

In the memoir, published on the cusp of what would be her husband's election victory, Mrs Trump revealed she is in favour of abortion rights - in contrast with her husband's stance on the issue.

"The Trumps don't follow the usual script and I think both the memoir and this documentary are attempts for Mrs Trump to help control or influence her own narrative and her own story," Professor Jellison says.

"This was an opportunity for her to tell her story in her way," Ms McBride agrees. "It's very hard for anybody that's in public life. You get defined by others, by the media, stories about you, by your critics - even by your supporters."

The documentary will follow Mrs Trump's "day-to-day life... what kind of responsibilities I have", including moving into the White House and establishing her own term. It's certainly a first for a first lady.

This time round, Melania Trump wants her story to be told - on her own terms.

(c) Sky News 2025: Melania Trump: The first lady who makes her own rules