Whatever admiration may have lurked in me for Melania Trump evaporated altogether when, one month before last November’s election, she released her stylish-but-grotesque video advocating for abortion rights (Read: killing babies). True enough, I’d soured on her already when it became clear she was an LGBTQ enthusiast, but the pro-abort stunt was the sealer; the nail in the infant-sized coffin.
Then she goes and does something sensible … noteworthy … influential! On a geo-political scale no less! What can I to do now but throw her an ‘attagirl!’? Amidst all the hub-bub around the Epstein files, Trump’s OBBB and the unveiled Obama/Hillary/’Russiagate’ scheme, the First Lady’s insightful sensibilities regarding the power-warped fiend currently trying to annihilate Ukraine didn’t get a ton of attention — though they undeniably should have.
On July 14, in what could almost be interpreted as a dash of uncharacteristic self-deprecation, President Trump confided during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte:
I go home, I tell the first lady, “You know, I spoke to Vladimir [Putin] today. We had a wonderful conversation.” And she said, “Oh really? Another city was just hit.”
At a White House Faith Luncheon shortly thereafter, the Commander-in-Chief echoed, I’d get home, I’d say, “First lady, I had the most wonderful talk with Vladimir. I think we’re finished.” And then I’ll turn on the television, or she’ll say to me one time, “Wow, that’s strange because they just bombed a nursing home.”
It’s nothing less than heartening to discover there’s someone in the president’s isolationist-prone inner-inner orbit who, at least concerning Moscow’s diminutive tyrant, can recognize that 2+2=4.
These disclosures closely tracked a startling Trump about-face toward Putin’s Russia and the nearly three-and-one-half-year-old conflict against its neighbor. In short: Knock off the bloody aggression within fifty days, Vlad, or face intensified U.S. tariffs. (A couple days ago, the President shriveled that grace period down to ten days.) On top of that? An emboldened guarantee of advanced U.S weapons — Patriot Missiles among them — sold to the European Union for Ukraine’s defense.
Heretofore, Trump has seemingly cultivated an eyebrow-furrowing soft spot for Putin; but of late that has unceremoniously faltered. From previously expressing some level of admiration for the Slavic strong man (Trump has variously dubbed him or his minatory efforts ‘genius’, ‘savvy’, ‘wonderful’; and a ‘tough cookie’) the President has whiplashingly pivoted to tagging him ‘absolutely crazy’; adding:
I don’t know what the h*ll happened to Putin …I’m not happy with Putin …You want to know the truth? He is very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.
Anyone bothering to reflect on the seventy-two-year-old former KGB officer’s decades-long curriculum vitae ought to be able to recognize him for what he is: A murderous thug; a cold-blooded megalomaniac; a bully driven by predatory delusions of Mother Russia’s grandeur.
Melania’s Putin-exposing perceptions appear to have taken hold of her husband’s psyche around the same time Putin embarrassed him by ostentatiously refusing to cooperate with the latter’s Ukrainian peace plan. Trump is not known for his sufferance toward anyone who crosses him — even during the most irenic of times, never mind periods of open conflict. Safe to say, he definitely won’t put up with somebody who impudently disses him in front of a watching planet.
Fox News Britt Hume provided a barbed summation of the past few years’ Trump/Putin interchanges:
Look, it’s clear from what the president himself has said, although he wouldn’t put it this way, that he got played by Putin and dragged on for months.
A refrain favored by our 47 th president has been that he “knew” Putin; that the duo had a decent relationship. Meantime, the Russian leader’s actual behavior – along with Melania’s sarcasm — would cast some doubt on that Trumpian confidence. Moreover, President Trump implies – surprisingly, from his own mouth — his Slovenian-born spouse figured out the sharkish Czar before he did.
The rapacious Putin has helpfully – and heedlessly — confirmed the menace he presently poses to Ukraine (which is a sovereign European nation and American ally.) His belligerence represents a threat not only to greater Europe but to the international order among civilized nations — and thus, ultimately, to the security and prosperity of the United States. Again, it’s, 2+2=4 geopolitically. Washington needs to let it be known in a meaningful way this state of affairs is intolerable.
Putin is diabolical; a rotten guy. And his chummy song-and-dance routine toward America’s Chief Executive obviously hasn’t fooled Melania. In global affairs, as in the rest of the human project, it’s actions that finally count; not style, not smarm.
Perhaps unwittingly, for those with ears to hear and eyes to see the First Lady has borne witness to this last principle. It’s a venerable, time-tested one that applies to current events … and to hum-drum, everyday doings: “Every tree is known by its own fruit” (Luke 6: 43-44).
Jesus confirmed mere words and outward affectations aren’t necessarily reliable indicators of what’s literally true inside a person; or a nation. What illustrates the reality within is the ongoing conduct without. He chided religious leaders of His day who were fixated on high-sounding rhetoric and superficial religious ritual while “neglect[ing] the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith” (Mt 23:23; NKJV). They spoke and intermittently play-acted one way, while regularly living another.
“[L]et us not love in word or in tongue,” exhorted one of Jesus’ dearest followers, “but in deed and in truth.” (1 Jn 3:18; NKJV)
Melania has seen through the Kremlin tyrant’s honeyed words and contrived bonhomie … reportedly before the President did. Her remarks to same seem to have stirred his thankfully more forceful responses. Here’s praying her eyes will be opened in the same way regarding the nation’s legalized child-killing racket and promotion of perversion. I’d welcome the opportunity to put together a follow-up “attagirl!” column commending her gutsy declarations upholding the sacredness of unborn life and biblical sexuality.
