Melania Trump Opens New Office For Be Best

Donald Trump and Melania (Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Former United States (US) First Lady Melania Trump is establishing a post-White House office in Palm Beach, Florida. This was conveyed by two sources with knowledge of the plan.

Quoting CNN, Thursday, January 28, 2021, the intention was to build the office to maintain Be Best, said one source. Be Best was founded by Melania Trump to help children while she was the first lady. During his time at the White House, Be Best was present as a broad three-pillar initiative, consisting of child health and welfare, online security, and prevention of bullying on social media and the impact of the opioid crisis on children.

Melania did little to help clarify or expand her platform during her time at the White House, often weeks between public Be Best events.

Melania Trump's post-White House office will be made up of three members who used to be Donald Trump-era White House staff. Hayley D'Antuono, who served for four years as director of operations and travel supervisor for the first lady and is now Melania Trump's chief of staff.

Additionally, Mary "Casey" Finzer was a low-level staff assistant to Melania Trump while serving as the first lady. One of her duties includes securing stocks of Melania Trump's "gift cabinet", according to one source, where gift items are stored and wrapped for distribution at school or hospital events. Finzer is now part of the operational and administrative team of Melania Trump's office.

Marcia Kelly, who served as Melania Trump's unpaid senior adviser when she was at the White House, also remains in the post-White House office. However, it is unclear whether he will now receive a salary or not.

Both sources suggest Melania Trump's office works out of Donald Trump's private club, Mar-a-Lago, which is also the main residence. Melania Trump is looking for a separate office space in the Palm Beach area.

On leaving the White House, Melania left 47 percent of the people with an unfavorable view of her. The poll, conducted by SSRS/CNN put the rate of people liking Melania at 42 percent, with 12 percent of them feeling unsure about how they feel about her.

Melania's highest percentage as the favorite figure is in May 2018, which is 57 percent. At that time he was present at the first state dinner. In addition, it was also noted that Melania's preferred presence was when she was present at the funeral of the late first lady Barbara Bush in Texas. Melania went to the funeral without Donald Trump.

However, in December 2018, public opinion about Melania Trump fell by double digits following her solo trip to Africa. At that time, the liking rate for Melania Trump was 43 percent and 36 percent for people who didn't like her.

The number of people who like Melania today is actually higher than Donald Trump, who has 33 percent. Meanwhile, in the Republican Party, the liking rate for Melania was higher at 84 percent, compared to Trump at 79 percent and former US vice president Mike Pence at 72 percent.