With first lady Melania Trump missing from public view for 19 days and counting, it makes her an anomaly not only among presidential spouses but within the Trump family, whose members are rarely far from a camera lens or reporter’s microphone. But Melania’s disappearing act could also be labeled “pulling a Tiffany” — after her younger stepdaughter, the only other member of the Trumps who’s been known for going to ground. Which raises the question, do Melania and Tiffany get along? Have they been comparing notes?
Although President Trump’s relationship with 24-year-old Tiffany can be described as remote — Trump’s daughter with second wife Marla Maples grew up on the West Coast, outside the Trump borg in New York — there are signs that Tiffany and Melania may share something that approaches a good rapport.
At Elite Daily, writer Chelsea Stewart interviewed a body-language expert who found signs of common ground when the pair attended Easter church services with President Trump in April and traded a space-defying air kiss. “Tiffany and Melania seem to know and like each other; they’re glad that the other one’s there,” said expert Traci Brown.
That contrasts with the vibe of Tiffany and her father, who seem strained in each other’s presence. “Since the inauguration, Tiffany and her father have sometimes gone for months without speaking, and she went a very long time without seeing him,” reported “People”, which said the pair’s relationship has gotten “much worse” since inauguration. “The last time she was at a family function with him, it was awkward for her and she didn’t feel totally welcome.”
Trump has also infamously belittled Tiffany in public. On Election Day, he said he was proud of Tiffany “to a lesser extent” than his other children. In March, he introduced her as an apparent afterthought to her older sister, Ivanka. There’s also the recurring matter of Trump’s comma usage on Twitter, which implies that Ivanka is his only daughter — and which he hasn’t changed although it’s been publicly pointed out several times.
If there’s any other Trump who knows about public belittlement, and whose relationship has gotten “much worse” with Donald since he became president, it would be Melania, who has had to endure public revelations of the Stormy Daniels affair (which occurred when Melania was newly postpartum) and her own Twitter humiliations: Trump mistakenly called her “Melanie” in a tweet welcoming her home from a hospital stay this month, and in his tweeted Mother’s Day message, the president didn’t mention her.
Perhaps that’s why the two have bonded. On Melania’s birthday in April, Tiffany posted an Instagram photo of the pair posing with the president. “Happy birthday, @flotus,” she wrote. “Love you!”
That morning, President Trump had called in to “Fox & Friends,” where he said he’d been too busy to get his wife a present.
