Why should the spouse of a politician be given any title or status? President is just another government job, and like any job, it ends at the office. She’s not an appendage to her husband, and it’s not a family business.
As noted, “First Lady” is technically not an official title nor office; however, tradition has evolved that the First Lady does play a role in the President’s social calendar, and most of them have chosen to use their position and visibility to champion causes.
In fairness that’s 14 days longer than almost anyone could stand being around her husband.
AIUI, Barron speaks fluent Slovenian. Reluctant though I generally am to make predictions, I’d guess that once Melania can ‘independently’ find her way to a comfortable berth on this list … she’ll be outta’ there:
George Wallace managed retaining the governorship despite term limits by having his wife run in his place, and then doing the work for her.
Melania is ineligible to become President so it’s conceivable that Trump is in the process of interviewing new wives that are native born.
Maybe that’s where Noem comes in. I saw an ad with her, and it looked like she’d just had her lips plumped like she’s trying to win a beauty pageant.
I might buy that idea, if I believed that Trump was motivated by wielding the office’s power, and was willing to be the “power behind the throne” to do so. I may be wrong, but I really don’t think that’s what he’s about.
He certainly wants to be able to punish his enemies using his office, but otherwise, I don’t think he truly gives a rat’s ass about most of the policies that his administration is pursuing; those are other people’s ideas (e.g., Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro, the Project 2025 folks, etc.).
I strongly believe that his motivation is to receiving the publicity and praise for implementing things that his devotees like, seeing his face on the news 24/7, the adulation that comes from holding the world’s most powerful office, and the near-total immunity to lawsuits and prosecution that he currently enjoys. Becoming First Cheeto to a Kristi Noem, or whoever, wouldn’t give him that.
“First Lady” being the spouse of the PotUS is a custom, not a law or anything official.
In fact, several women other than presidential spouses have acted in that role, including:
Thomas Jefferson’s daughter Martha, after Mrs. Jefferson died.
Andrew Jackson’s daughter-in-law AND his deceased wife’s niece as well
Zachery Taylor’s daughter
Benjamin Harrison’s daughter
James Buchanan’s niece
Chester Arthur’s sister
Grover Cleveland’s sister
Gerald Ford’s daughter Susan while her mother was recovering from breast cancer treatment.
Certainly, originally, it was intended as a ceremonial, hostess role for official functions. So far always filled by a female relative of the PotUS but in no way required.
Melania is in no way obligated to “fulfill” any sort of hostess role. If she wants to be obscure I’m cool with that, why not?
Should we ever have a woman as PotUS I suspect the title of a male spouse would be “First Gentleman”.
Thank you for that comprehensive list, though to it, we might add Donald Trump. (The New York Times article says, “At the White House this time around, Mr. Trump has taken to performing some duties that typically would fall to a first lady. She’s not the one carefully selecting light fixtures for the White House residence, redesigning the Rose Garden, greeting tour groups in the East Wing or hosting receptions for Women’s History Month. He is.”)
I don’t have a NYT subscription so I don’t know if the article mentioned it, but from 1949 to 1952 the White house was being reconstructed because it was no longer safe to occupy.
It does not.
“We haven’t seen such a low-profile first lady since Bess Truman, and that’s going way back in living human memory, nearly 80 years ago,” said Katherine Jellison, a historian at Ohio University whose research has focused on first ladies. She said that, like Mrs. Trump, Mrs. Truman spent much of her time running back to “her home base whenever she had the chance.” (In Mrs. Truman’s case, that was Independence, Mo.)
I honestly thought she wouldn’t bother to be around at all since norms and traditions are no longer a thing. But she does love to grift and it makes sense for her to take advantage of a large staff to help her in those pursuits. I imagine she updated the prenup to get set fees for her limited appearances. Plus those events give the film crew footage to use for her Amazon movie about being First Lady.
Mostly. I think there’s a good case to be made for Edith Wilson having been the de facto POTUS after Woodrow Wilson’s stroke.
She was, which was not a good thing at all.
Mary Ann Bickerdyke
Did your internet connection fail in the middle of writing that sentence?
I’m sorry, I thought people might recognize the reference.
General Sherman: She ranks me
While I agree that Mel has been largely absent from the White House, I did see that she appeared at a ceremony unveiling a stamp for Barbara Bush.
(Notably, George W was absent from the ceremony)
How’s his health holding up?
It is good enough for him to issue this statement:
If health was the reason for GW staying away, I think that news reports on the postage stamp ceremony would say that.
I think GW doesn’t want to normalize an authoritarian regime. Why he will not go the next step, and criticize it, is possible to guess at but hard to really understand.
If I was GW Bush, I would be wondering how long it will be until there is a Trump stamp, and whether post offices will be selling a Trump stamp, and that of his mother, at the same time.
Also notably, Laura Bush was absent, and there was no mention of the Bush daughters.