Melania Trump To Play Bigger Role In Donald Trump’s Reelection, Learned To Humanize POTUS

Melania Trump will play a bigger role in her husband Donald Trump’s re-election.

According to Kate Bennett, a CNN correspondent, the FLOTUS will be taking a bigger part in the POTUS’ re-election. Normally, Melania doesn’t join rallies, fundraising and campaign events. However, she is reportedly set to headline at least two fundraisers this spring.

Both of Melania’s upcoming fundraising events support the Trump Victory Fund, a joint PAC between the Trump 2020 campaign and the Republican National Committee. The first one is reportedly set in March in Los Angeles area. The second one will be held at Trump’s private residence at Mar-a-Lago.

According to Kayleigh McEnany, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, this isn’t surprising because the first lady is a “sought-after voice from the first family, who has the overwhelming approval and admiration of the American people.”

Melania revealed in a past interview that she decided not to join Trump’s campaign and rallies because they had a then-9-year-old son. Barron needed a parent and Trump was always away for his campaign, so she decided to stay home with their child.

“It’s my choice not to be there. I support my husband 100 percent, but we have a 9-year-old son together, Barron, and I'm raising him, and this is the age he needs a parent at home,” Melania told “20/20” in an interview back in 2015.

Due to Melania’s absence during her husband’s campaign, Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka became her surrogate. It was the first daughter who humanized Trump as she spoke about the POTUS as someone who knew him best.

Kate Andersen Brower, CNN contributor and author of “First Women: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies,” added that first ladies can humanize their husbands, and Laura Bush and Michelle Obama both did it well. They poked fun at their husbands and brought them down to earth both behind closed doors and for the voters. Bennett believed that Melania has learned to do the same.

“That ability to humanize a president, especially one as gruff and brusque as Donald Trump, is something Melania Trump has developed in her three years as first lady, and a skill she will use as the campaign ramps,” the “Free, Melania” author wrote citing a source familiar with Trump’s campaign.

According to first lady expert Katherine Jellison, Melania is well-liked by Trump’s supporters. However, she felt that the FLOTUS lacks the “crossover appeal” to convince those who aren’t in Trump’s side.