“I just found out that agents went through the First Lady’s closets and searched her clothes and personal effects. Surprisingly, the area was left in relative disarray. Wow!” Trump posted on Social Truth.
He was much angrier — angrier with an exclamation mark — than Melania Trump, according to five people who spoke to CNN about Melania Trump’s recent activities on condition of anonymity to protect personal and professional relationships.
“She cared, but not like he did,” said a person familiar with the former first lady’s reaction.
The feeders in her bedroom, closets, and bathroom were a little too close to her independent orbit. But the former first lady has not been provoked enough to make a public statement about the search, or what it turned out to be. Instead, her public statements — via her Twitter account — have focused on her most visible passion since leaving Washington: NFTs.
CNN reached out to Trump several times for comment on this story and did not receive a response.
“She is private and is protecting her son and her home,” added the second person.
The warrant was clear about the rooms and areas the agents could search, and included any space the former president frequents, said a person familiar with the details of the warrant’s execution. The troops have separate bedrooms in the 3,500-square-foot Mar-a-Lago, three people familiar with the structure tell CNN, but Melania Trump’s bedroom and closets are just a short hallway from the former president’s bedrooms. and home office.
Though upset and annoyed that strangers were going through her curated and expensive collection of clothes, shoes and bags, those who know her say, she was — and remains — characteristically calm.
“Why would she say anything?” says a person familiar with Trump’s long-hush communications strategy. “Her thinking is, if she’s quiet, she’ll just go away,” this person says.
Some of Trump’s recent public appearances include a visit to a Manhattan hair salon.
The coolness also stems from a fundamental certainty that Donald Trump’s riches, however acquired, would not be found in her bedroom or closet.
“She would never let him keep his stuff in her room and he honestly would never ask,” says one of the people.
“(Melania Trump) has always considered what Donald does to be separated from her,” says another person who has known Trump for several years. “The decisions he makes about his business are his decisions, not hers.”
The former first lady keeps her eye on NFTs
The business of being a former President of the United States who remains in the headlines has taken Donald Trump by storm. As focused as he has been over the past year and a half — as a Republican kingmaker or dodging investigations — Melania Trump’s life behind the White House has been less high-profile.
Of the roughly 50 tweets Trump has posted since mid-February, nearly half have been retweets of those posted by the USA Memorabilia Twitter account, which has fewer than 500 followers, or its tweets closing NFTs on page.
“It’s strange,” says a former Trump adviser about the former first lady’s promotion of a lucrative business. “Being so open to monetizing US-themed collections.”
Two people familiar with Trump’s NFT efforts say she has been advised of late by Marc Beckman, a longtime friend and husband of designer Alice Roi, who designed a handful of Trump’s outfits during her tenure as first lady. first. Beckman has run a marketing and branding agency for many years, but has recently focused on the world of cryptocurrencies and how to capitalize on the new era of technology-based collectibles. Beckman in 2021 published a book called “The Comprehensive Guide to NFTs, Digital Artwork and Blockchain Technology”.
Several attempts to reach Beckman by CNN were unsuccessful.
The collections published on the company’s website are government-related themes such as the National Parks Collection, the Valor Collection — focused on branches of the US military — and the POTUS Trump Collection, which are NFTs from various moments in presidential history. of Trump.
One NFT in the latest collection — each priced at $50 — is of the former first couple with a digitally waved American flag and Mount Rushmore in the background; another, “45 First Ladies NFT,” features Melania Trump and Donald Trump wearing tuxedos, an official photograph from their time in the White House, used as their 2020 holiday card.
Although USA Memorabilia NFT’s earnings are not publicly available — and CNN’s attempts to obtain that information from the company were unsuccessful — the former first lady continues to promote sales through social media.
“It’s very unusual for a former first lady not to take advantage of her continued power and prestige after she leaves office. But I’ve learned that it’s a losing game trying to figure out what Melania is up to,” she says. Kate Andersen Brower. CNN contributor and author of “Residence” and “First Women: Grace and Power of America’s First Ladies.”
Charitable component of NFT sales still unclear
Also not mentioned in Trump’s tweets promoting USA Memorabilia, the most recent of which occurred on Monday, is a charitable component that the former first lady promoted in December of last year, when she announced about first ventured into blockchain sales with a $150 digital image. of her eyes.
Trump said the sales would fuel a “commitment to children through my Be Best initiative” and that proceeds would provide computer science skills for children who had exited the foster care system. However, no determination of the share of the proceeds was announced, nor confirmation of the organizations that would receive the funds raised, despite repeated requests by CNN over several months for clarity.
In a May interview with Fox, Trump said he would award scholarships from an initiative he calls “Fostering the Future,” though only one scholarship has so far been publicly awarded, the details of which have not been made public.
“The way it is in office, there’s no regulation of how much or how little (a former first lady) should do. Each woman has approached it differently,” Brower said of Trump’s unorthodox business model.
First ladies don’t get money from the government to set up big offices after they leave the White House, and after their husbands die, they get a small pension of $20,000 a year. Some of the people CNN spoke to for this story speculated that Trump is trying to set up a business separate from her husband’s, which is currently embroiled in some legal entanglements.
“I would imagine as his wife and the mother of his child, she must be worried (about the future),” says the person who has known Trump for many years. “She can at least be a little worried about how her life is going to change.”
With one of the largest public platforms in the world, it is challenging to understand then why Trump is supporting a little-known digital relic business, when – perhaps like her recent predecessors – she could be creating initiatives with global impact. To that end, any of the people who know Trump and discussed her recent activities with CNN were perplexed.
“To sum up, I think it’s a missed opportunity for a former first lady not to stay relevant,” Brower said.
