While critics have long doubted the sincerity of their love for each other, Donald Trump and his wife Melania are going strong in their marriage after 20 years. So what's their secret?
Sharing insight on the dynamic between the world's most powerful man and his loyal wife, Melania's advisers credit her "soft power" and ability to let her husband shine as keys to the couple's success.
"There is something in her – the strong woman – but at the same time, there is the soft power; she’s really good at balancing her husband,” the first lady’s official photographer, Régine Mahaux told Hello! magazine.
Melania has cut a bold figure as she returns to her role as First Lady with more confidence, and a more receptive nation, than she had the first time. Her official White House portrait, which showed her in a power pose and business suit, broke with convention. Her striking inauguration outfit was also widely seen as an assertion of her personal identity.
These gestures of independence come after Melania shared some political differences with her husband in her best-selling memoir released in 2024.
"We spoke about it. And I said, you have to write what you believe. I’m not going to tell you what to do. You have to write what you believe,” President Trump told Fox News’s Bill Melugin.
“But I said you have to stick with your heart. I’ve said that to everybody, you have to go with your heart.”
While Trump respects Melania's personal autonomy, she takes her duties as a wife and mother very seriously, creating a harmonious balance in the family.
“She’s always in the right place. She’s always behind her husband. He’s in the light; she doesn’t need the light. She’s a very good No. 2,” Mahaux said, adding, “It’s always her husband first, and I like that; she has strong family values, to be a good wife and to make sure they’re happy.”
Meanwhile, those who work closely with Melania say she's anything but cold and aloof.
"She will also make a coffee for you herself. So if you have a vision of a woman surrounded by servants, you are wrong," her stylist, Hervé Pierre, said.
While long dismissed by some as a trophy wife, Melania has proven her loyalty to the president through a series of trials - standing by his side as he survived assassination attempts and criminal prosecutions on his journey back to the White House.
“Sometimes I wonder how she could have the courage to keep on going; they’ve gone through so much. She’s committed. She loves him and he loves her," Mahaux said.
Although members of the public have their own preconceived notions of what their marriage is like, it's clear that the President and his wife are truly committed to each other. It is difficult to imagine them making it this far if that wasn't the case.
