So Melania is not moving to the White House (which doesn't surprise me at all). In fact she has disappeared again. I can only imagine the insanity that would have happened if Michelle Obama had refused to move to the White House, and she had TWO young children. The republicans would never have said "hands off" if Michelle had made that decision. No way in hell!

So Ivanka is clearly now "FLOTUS." Just now Trump walked out to pay an "unannounced visit" to the family of the Navy Seal who died in the attack Trump just ordered. Ordinarily, of course, the FLOTUS would be at the president's side. Instead it is Ivanka, walking so close to Trump one couldn't see any light between them, and I am sorry but it looks extremely weird -- a father, whose wife is perfectly healthy and capable, having his adult, married with children daughter serve in the FLOTUS spot. It LOOKS very strange, and yes optics matter, and I don't care which historical figures the repubs invoke (Kennedy had his brother around!) -- it looks very peculiar.

I also commented in another thread that we don't need to treat Melania like some special snowflake. She isn't helpless. Michelle Obama, not to mention Hillary, were criticized for every step they took as First Ladies. Melania nodded at everything Trump did and said on the trail, constantly voiced her support for him, participated in his birther attacks, and she dismissed/rationalized his infamous "grab 'em by the pussy" statements in a major television interview.

She is a grown-ass woman (as my students would say), and she has enormous resources at her disposal w/without Trump. As the wife of the president, she is one of the most powerful women in the world. I am sorry but her decision against moving to the White House, and obvious total disinterest in doing any of the FLOTUS charity work or supporting any interests (as all First Ladies have done for decades), sets back all of the work First Ladies like Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton and Eleanor Roosevelt and Jackie and Laura Bush (yes even Laura) and so on have done over the years, in the modern age. I remember Trump promising (and Melania repeating) that she would have all sorts of causes, especially women's health care. So much for that!

Ivanka is our FLOTUS. It looks very strange, and seeing the two march together in unison, side-by-side, "joined at the hip" was very odd indeed.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028579601