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Post by Admin on Jul 29, 2020 7:36:48 GMT
The historic White House Rose Garden is getting an upgrade for the first time in nearly 60 years. First Lady Melania Trump faced backlash after revealing the restoration plans Monday — just months before the election, as coronavirus cases continue to surge in many states. Mrs. Trump said she wants to return the garden to its original 1962 glory, when it was designed by Rachel Lambert Mellon, a friend of President John F. Kennedy. Mellon wrote that she was found inspiration during an October walk along Fifth Avenue in New York City, when she was awestruck by magnolia trees outside of the Frick Museum. Plans are already underway to restore the famous garden, the first lady said during a rare appearance Monday. It hasn't been redone since the Kennedy era, but the announcement emphasized the need for a renovation after decades of use and modern updates, in order to "appreciate the elegant symmetry of the Mellon plan." "The very act of planting a garden involves hard work and hope in the possibility of a bright future," said Mrs. Trump in the announcement. "Preserving the history and beauty of the White House and its grounds is a testament to our nation's commitment to the care of this landscape and our dedication to American ideals, safeguarding them for our children and their children for generations to come." The project is expected to be completed in about three weeks. Work has already begun, with tarps and drapes spotted hanging on the West Wing and the Oval Office, The Associated Press reports. Perry Guillot, the landscape architect working on the project, told AP that the biggest change to the garden will be the addition of a 3-foot-wide limestone walking path bordering the central lawn. The project will also make the garden more accessible for people with disabilities. Other changes will be made to drainage, infrastructure, plantings and audiovisual and broadcasting technologies. The Rose Garden, which borders the Oval Office and the West Wing, has been used for weddings, state dinners and presidential news conferences, among other historic events. Mrs. Trump herself used the space to announce her "Be Best" program in May 2018, and, most recently, President Donald Trump has used the space to hold his coronavirus press briefings.
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Post by Admin on Oct 22, 2020 19:39:56 GMT
First lady Melania Trump appeared to express astonishment over Vogue magazine’s decision to feature Beyoncé on the cover of the September 2018 issue and give her editorial input, according to a secretly-recorded phone conversation shared with NBC News.
“Anna [Wintour] gave the September issue of Vogue cover - complete, complete, complete, everything - to Beyoncé,” the first lady says in a July 2018 conversation recorded by her then-friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff.
“She hired black photographer. And it’s the first black photographer ever doing cover of Vogue.”
The statement was made after Melania Trump and Winston Wolkoff, her former friend and adviser who previously spent a decade at Vogue, discussed the departure of top editors at the venerable fashion magazine.
The September 2018 issue of Vogue magazine made history as the first time a Black photographer was selected to shoot its cover star. Beyonce said at the time she saw the issue as an opportunity to provide more opportunities to Black artists like the cover photographer, Tyler Mitchell.
Vogue described the cover as “truly a collaborative effort.”
“When Vogue suggested photographer Tyler Mitchell to Beyonce, the star immediately said yes to the opportunity to work with this young artist," the magazine said at the time.
In a statement, Melania Trump’s spokesperson attacked Winston Wolkoff – who authored the book, “Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady – but didn’t directly address the Beyoncé remarks.
“Her narcissism knows no bounds, this woman is a fraud,” said spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham. “These audio tapes are hand-picked about nonsense and presented with no context. Shame on her for this continued attempt at character assassination and shame on NBC for covering this gossip.”
A spokesperson for Beyoncé declined to comment.
The first lady’s remarks on the Beyoncé cover were made in one of six recorded telephone conversations, lasting more than six hours, that took place between February and July 2018. Winston Wolkoff began recording her calls with the first lady after she was asked to leave the White House amid scrutiny over spending by the Presidential Inaugural Committee, which she worked on.
Melania Trump has maintained a carefully guarded persona since assuming the role of first lady, revealing little about her personal beliefs and largely staying out of the political fray.
At one point, she references a June 2018 trip to the southern border to visit migrant children in detention who were separated from their parents. Melania Trump notes that former first lady Michelle Obama made no such trip.
“When did the previous first lady went down to the border and visit them?” Melania Trump says. “Never.”
“I asked, ‘Did she ever went?’” she continues. “They said, like, no. No records.”
The jacket worn by the first lady during her trip to the Texas detention facility – which featured the phrase, “I really don’t care. Do u?” – drew wide scrutiny at the time.
Melania Trump’s fashion choices were a frequent topic of conversation between the two women.
The first lady expresses bemusement over the effort by some to ascribe meaning to the clothing she chooses. During one call, she scoffs at a reporter who suggested she might have worn a pink designer dress in honor of gay pride.
“They saying, ‘She was wearing that dress because she didn’t say anything about gay parade on Sunday but she wore Monday to give the nod for the gay people,’” Melania Trump says.
“Are you kidding?” she adds. “It never even crossed my mind.”
Melania Trump also reflects on comparisons to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the former first lady who was known for her style.
“We are such a different type of women,” Melania Trump says. “If you really think about it, right? She was, like, skinny, short, tiny. I’m not that way.”
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Post by Admin on Dec 4, 2020 20:56:14 GMT
When Donald Trump leaves the White House on Jan. 20, he will likely head to his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. That's where he and First Lady Melania Trump filed their "declaration of domicile" last year, switching their permanent residences from New York City. The White House is, of course, staying mum about his post-presidency plans, at least publicly, while he continues to make baseless allegations of fraud in the election he lost. Privately, however, aides acknowledge they're all on their way out. And the staff at Mar-a-Lago have been preparing the way, including renovating Trump's 2,000-square-foot residence at the club, which he purchased in the '80s. “Donald’s apartment, which once belonged to Mar-a-Lago estate creator Marjorie Merriweather Post, will be expanded and spruced up,” a source close to the president tells PEOPLE. “They are definitely renovating his apartment within the Mar-a-Lago Club to make it larger, more modern and comfortable for his use,” this source says. (Sources have told PEOPLE he and the first lady have separate bedrooms in their Mar-a-Lago lodgings.) Some of those around Trump, 74, say he and the first family are expected to spend significant time in Palm Beach while dividing the remaining time between other properties — such as his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and Trump Tower in New York City. But Mar-a-Lago is likely to be the centerpiece of any plans, in part because of how warmly received the Trumps are in the area compared to elsewhere in the country. It is also a favored retreat of the first lady, 50. http://instagram.com/p/CIQsKz3gwE1 “He wouldn’t want to be in Palm Beach in the dead of summer, but he doesn’t have to be so it can work out well,” a Mar-a-Lago Club member tells PEOPLE. “He loves Palm Beach and his friends here,” the member says of the president. “And his golf club is minutes away in West Palm Beach.” As a club source previously told PEOPLE: “No matter what else is happening in the world, he is treated like royalty at Mar-a-Lago. He loves to be here.” http://instagram.com/p/CH6P0bMgxKb
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Post by Admin on Jan 12, 2021 8:16:20 GMT
Melania Trump finally came forward on Monday with a statement on the violent mob unleashed by her husband, finally breaking her week-long silence after the Capitol riot. In her lengthy statement, the First Lady –– who was reportedly holding on a furniture photoshoot for her new coffee table book at the White House during the riot –– casts herself as a victim of "salacious gossip" and "personal attacks" made against her. While she did make mention of the multiple lives lost in the melee on Jan. 6, Melania Trump curiously mourned the pro-Trump rioters who were killed after criminally trespassing on the Capitol before she did the same for the Capitol police officers who died, Brian Sicknick and Howard Liebengood, after trying to fight off the Trump-motivated mob. "I am disappointed and disheartened with what happened last week," said Melania Trump after expressing condolences to the victims of the violence, then adding, "I find it shameful that surrounding these tragic events there has been salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attacks, and false misleading accusations on me – from people who are looking to be relevant and have an agenda. This time is solely about healing our country and its citizens. It should not be used for personal gain." The First Lady's self-defense comes after former Trump aide and friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff published a bitter j'accuse in The Daily Beast last week casting Melania Trump as a passive aider-and-abettor with "blood on her hands." In Wolkoff's tell-all published just last year, she detailed how the first lady "stoked and massaged…egos and wittingly agreed to the falsehoods and poisonous lies, veiled as truths, that built this house of mirrors." Although Melania Trump condemned the violence carried out on Wednesday's insurrection, imploring "people to never make assumptions based on the color of a person's skin or use differing political ideologies as a basis for aggression and viciousness," she stopped short of attributing any blame to her husband, the inciter-in-chief, who –– along with over a dozen stalwart Republican allies –– encouraged his supporters to "fight like hell" against a "stolen" election. The President is now set to be tried for another round of impeachment by the House this week. Melania Trump, however, made no mention of her husband's precarious position in office, instead calling for a vague return to normalcy through "healing" and open-mindedness: As an American, I am proud of our freedom to express our viewpoints without persecution." The First Lady added, "It is one of the paramount ideals which America is fundamentally built on. Many have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect that right. With that in mind, I would like to call on the citizens of this country to take a moment, pause, and look at things from all perspectives.
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Post by Admin on Jan 24, 2021 20:50:23 GMT
Many social media users revelled in footage shot at Palm Beach airport on Wednesday, after Donald Trump left the White House to be succeeded by Joe Biden, the man who beat him by more than 7m votes and 306-232 in the electoral college.
Trump himself paused to wave at photographers but his wife, in dark glasses and a striking print dress, continued walking, deadpan, until she was firmly offscreen, leaving her husband alone.
“If ‘ain’t got to do this shit anymore’ was a person” was the biting verdict of one user who posted the footage of Melania apparently at last on the way to life as a golf widow and – she seemed to a watching world to hope – relative obscurity, out of the public spotlight.
Ever since Donald Trump entered the Republican primary in summer 2015, speculation over his wife’s view of him – and her role as first lady – has run rampant. The Trumps were reported to keep separate White House bedrooms, their actions in public frantically parsed for clues to the state of the marriage, the 45th president’s third.
Like his other marriages, it was dogged by allegations of infidelity. He denied such claims but confirmed payments to a porn star and a Playboy model. The marriage was also prey to stories about Melania’s nude modeling past, which included photographs reportedly leaked to the press by Roger Stone, with her husband’s knowledge.
In a bestselling book, Melania & Me, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a spurned friend and aide who ended up playing tapes of their conversations to the media, called the marriage “transactional”.
Now, with Donald Trump impeached a second time, vulnerable to prosecution and with his business holdings at risk, the Palm Beach footage only increased speculation over what sort of transactions might be made if Melania sues for divorce.
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