East Wing Office of First Lady in limbo
Under Donald Trump, one tradition-bound White House office could be in for a small revolution. During the opening days of his administration, the Office of the First Lady could be nearly empty.
Melania Trump, the incoming president’s wife, will remain in New York to allow her young son, Barron, to finish out the school year. And although Trump’s daughter Ivanka will move to Washington, the family’s spokeswoman Hope Hicks said flatly that “Ivanka will not have a role in the East Wing.”
While the role of first lady has largely been shaped by each presidential spouse, there are some set duties assigned to the unsalaried position. She is expected to act as a hostess, and has a substantial paid staff (up to two dozen) to assist in planning massive lunches and dinners, supporting whatever cause she adopts and representing the country on goodwill tours.
As Trump moves into the White House alone, he seems content not to foist the role fully on his spouse. There have been no announcements from the Trump transition team about who will serve on the first lady’s staff or handle the traditional White House events, some of which begin as soon as a new administration takes office.
“They are way, way behind,” said a former East Wing staff member who has talked with members of Trump’s team and spoke to the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity. “The governors’ dinner is at the end of February. It’s like a state dinner. It’s very formal and takes a lot of planning.”
Ann Stock, who served as social secretary under President Bill Clinton, was appointed six days before the inauguration and came into an office with no computer but a long list of events to plan. After the governors’ dinner, there are receptions associated with the State of the Union address, an Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn attended by as many as 30,000 people, and of course, state dinners.
During Trump’s campaign, Melania, who is 24 years his junior, gave few speeches – while his daughter Ivanka and adult sons Eric and Donald Jr. were active surrogates. Ivanka introduced her father when he declared his candidacy and again at the Republican National Convention.
Melania, who worked as a model before marrying Trump, has shown little overt interest in engaging with the East Wing or the scrutiny that comes along with the first lady position. She is only the nation’s second foreign-born first lady, and she speaks five languages – Slovenian, English, French, Serbian and German.
Her fluency in those languages could help with the global outreach expected of a president’s spouse. Since her husband’s election, she has not embraced being a public figure, though she did say during the campaign that she intends to take on cyberbullying as an issue.
“The single most important role that a presidential spouse plays is as the emotional ballast and adviser,” said Carl Sferrazza Anthony, a historian with the National First Ladies’ Library. “Sometimes she is the one person who has the courage and the tenacity to defy a president in private. Melania Trump may still be present behind the scenes as the confidante to her husband. If Ivanka Trump is more comfortable assuming a public role, the public will assume she’s representing her father. But it’s nuanced because a child is not going to be able to speak to a parent the same way a spouse will speak to their spouse.”