The White House released the new official photo of our most awesome First Lady Melania Trump. She is a beautiful woman who photographs beautifully and the photograph is beautifully composed and shot. Well done to Mrs. Trump’s longtime photographer Regine Mahaux. Pity then that the photograph just doesn’t work for me. Your mileage may very.
“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”
Melania Trump is both a lady and powerful. I don’t deny that the photograph is beautiful. With Mrs. Trump as the subject how could it be anything but beautiful. That said, neither Mrs. Trump nor the photographer needed to reinforce her power. This photograph screams “GIRL BOSS.
Black and white photographs convey so much with all the different shades. Still I find the Melania Trump 1.0 photograph, by the same photographer far more powerful.
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Lots of power and beauty, less Meryl Streep in the Devil Wears Prada. Some people were there for it. The Daily Beast had:
“She looks like she’s got the grin of ‘Somebody is going to pay’“, wrote one user to X. ”Get them, Melania!!”
“They tried to take away her child’s father. They were horrible to her and her family. You’re not scared enough of this Trump,” posted another. “Melania is a force.”
Of course, I am not at James Bond fan and that may be why I don’t cotton to Melania 2.0.
My friend @commandobond points out First Lady Melania Trump’s official White House portrait is very much James Bond by Terry O’Neill pic.twitter.com/5DbxTxtVWw
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) January 28, 2025
The UK Mirror brought in a body language expert:
Now, body language expert Judi James has unpacked and analysed what the striking image portrays. Judi exclusively told the Mirror how the powerful shot has been engineered to exudes ‘ownership and leadership’ while ‘demanding her own respect’.
“This full-fibre corporate pose makes Melania look like a candidate for her husband’s old role in The Apprentice. It’s a CEO, boardroom look, from the sharp but practical power-dressing to the signals of territorial ownership and leadership,” Judi said.
“If anyone was in any doubt that Melania would be an absent or even a soft-focus, trophy wife-style FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) this portrait should be seen as a definitive, intentional gesture of status, energy, immersive commitment and leadership.”
On the backdrop for the image, Judi added, signals her determination to strike out away from her husband. “This setting and her splaying make it look as though Melania has her own throne now, rather than being just the allen key to Trump’s flat-pack version,” she said. “She appears to be demanding her own respect, just as her book tour recently gave her a chance to explain that she has her own thoughts and her own opinions.”
As a former fashion model, Melania has a notable style. The expert explains, “The pants suit is tailored to be practical but to project power, with the sculpted waist emphasizing the sharp shoulder pads, which are synonymous with the power-dressed looks of the ’80s.”
On what her body language projects, Judi adds, “Melania’s lips are closed to give a more serious look, but her narrowed eye expression suggests some shrewdness. Her arms are splayed here in a gesture of confidence and status and her splayed fingertips rest on the desk in front to suggest a ‘this world is mine’ message of dominant ownership.
“Dominate ownership”. That’s so 80’s. It also sounds like a woman in her early 30’s not a woman in her mid-50’s.
DOES ANYONE WANT TO TALK ABOUT THAT GIANT PHALLIC SYMBOL? The Washington Monument is a symbol of male power and virility. Maybe Melania is sending a don’t EFF with me message. I thought it was a silly and unnecessary image.
It is nice not to see the Nation’s Grandma showing up wearing her sofa.
Jill Biden:
Same sofa, different slipcover https://t.co/bPgyIEkgzR pic.twitter.com/UrlsxvH0cS— Pete Reilly, Stochastic Deplorable (@petenet321) June 16, 2023
Trust me. I get why Melania is sending a message. Touch my frilly pieces and you die. I get it.
Happy inauguration day everyone happy liberation day
Good night, Melania Trump, and thank God for you pic.twitter.com/lwEbrtcyBs
— USMC Lady Vet (@Arkypatriot) January 21, 2025
Everyone is going to see in fashion and photography. My husband and I saw completely different things in the Inauguration outfit that Melania wore this time. I saw Secret Squirrel, the cartoon character. My husband saw Lee Van Cleef (The Ugly) from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Lee Van Cleef with Yoni Hamenachem/Wikimedia Commons.org/Creative Commons 3.0.
He has a point.
Featured Image: Regine Mahaux/White House/ABC/cropped/Public Domain
GWB says: I am not at James Bond fan
That explains much. 😉
synonymous with the power-dressed looks of the ’80s
Maybe why I like it so much.
DOES ANYONE WANT TO TALK ABOUT THAT GIANT PHALLIC SYMBOL?
No. It’s a reminder of Washington, DC. And it’s a reminder of where this photo is shot. If you think it’s a phallic symbol, maybe you need to talk to your therapist.
I get why Melania is sending a message.
Do you? I see “You thought you could shoot my husband and get away with it? Think again.”
Which is what an awful lot of us were thinking, too. “You think you can shoot at my President and get away with it? Think again.”
I think it’s a great photograph, if you think the FLOTUS should have any power over anything but the Christmas decorations and dinner menus. Even if you don’t, though, it’s a great one because of that “You tried to crush us” vibe, IMO.
skillyboo says: It’s her FAAFO pose. She’s seen the evil that has been set upon her family and she will no longer sit by idly and take it. I expect these next 4 years will be cause for celebration with the beat down President Trump will unleash on the Wokeratti and the strength she will provide him to succeed.
Dietrich says: She, and we know she can be photographed beautifully. She chose to photographed all serious.
Lee van Cleef was the Bad in Good Bad and the Ugly. Eastwood was the Good. Eli Wallach was the Ugly. Cheers –
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