Despite only making a handful of public appearances throughout Trump’s presidency, and regardless of her backseat approaches towards and throughout her husband’s presidential campaigns; former first lady Melania Trump has appeared in the limelight, in a misleading effort to promote her new memoir,“Melania”.
The Trump family is no stranger to intentionally spreading and distributing first-hand lies, misinformation, and conspiracies to the media and the public. With the thirty-four felony count, and twice impeached president himself hiding under the guise of “fake news” countless times in pivotal points of his political career. Recently, in a crucial time preceding and following the presidential debate, and upcoming election cycle, Melania has mimicked this outlined approach. Releasing a series of cryptic and concerning messages all at politically convenient times for her husband's campaign.
Mrs. Trump has been incrementally posting video clips, which her husband, and his supporters have been recirculating rapidly. The first of the videos, is a thirty four second clip depicting a stone-faced Melania, dressed in all black, with a dark backdrop, opening with a statement on her “horrible and distressing” emotions around the attempt on her husband’s life. Although this grief is valid in abstraction, Melania quickly loses credibility and sincerity, by using such statements to allude to conspiracy theories surrounding her husband's assassination attempt; raising vague questions regarding law enforcements “failures” on arrests before ominously stating there is “definitely more to the story”. After this publicly important information is discussed, a pre-order link to her new memoir is flashed on screen, revealing the driving force behind such emotional statements to be strictly promotional, and for publicity reasons only.
In another stylized video released after Trump’s disappointing performance in the presidential debate, Melania shares a dramatic excerpt of the Fourth Amendment, bringing to attention the claimed invasion of “privacy”, that happened through a search on her husband's home. In actuality, this apparent transgression by the government, was due to the families unlawful possession of classified documents which Trump was found liable for in court. This dubious interpretation of the constitution, like the other claims made in these obscure videos, are ultimately harmful to the flow of truthful information, trust in government, and public interest.
It is vital to note that Melania Trump isn’t just anyone, she is a former first lady, her statements and status hold weight and significance to the public. Whether it be by illuminating subterfuges, or attempting to reduce clauses in the constitution, this vague and deceitful wish to “uncover the truth” implies that there is a form of secrecy and corruption within the government. This false idea, especially when expressed by individuals such as Ms. Trump with high authority, only harbors more mistrust within the broken political scene; thus, worsening the era of misinformation and disinformation. Moreover, the fact that each of these videos ends with a redirection to her website and image of her book shows there is a clear, and traceable monetary motive behind these strategic announcements.
Whatever the “memoir” itself contains, is up to interpretation and speculation; however, the means of promotion have been criticized by public figures, and media outlets as misleading. Furthermore, it is expected that videos of a similar fear-mongering style, and content will be continuously delivered up until the book release.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/sep/10/melania-trump-memoir-assassination-attempt
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/05/politics/melania-trump-memoir-video/index.html
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/K-BOurX5L28
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/melania-trump-book-promo-videos-rating.ht
1 comment:
I definitely agree with your idea of Melania Trump's words having a large amount of power and influence on many Americans. I do wonder how much of a role she serves in persuading those voters who are undecided or on the fence about who they are voting for in the election. It seems that in addition to being a blatant money grab for her unreleased memoir, Melania's sudden reappearance in the media could also be motivated by an attempt from Trump to gain more support and virality within the public eye, thus boosting his potential popularity and likelihood of getting reelected.
I do also find it interesting to note how many publications have speculated about Melania Trump's lackluster support for her husbands second presidential campaign. Seeing as videos are much easier to manipulate, edit, and reshoot until perfection, it could be an easier way for Melania to show support for her husband, rather than an uninspired speech or less organized public appearance.
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