Melania Trump’s small life: Spa days, hawking NFTs, mystery charity

To many, Melania Trump doesn’t act like the typical former first lady or the loyal spouse, as her attention-seeking husband is running for president again while brashly fending off legal battles that could lead to prison.

The Slovenian-born former model hasn’t appeared beside Donald Trump at campaign events or when he’s had to go to court in New York and Florida to be arraigned on state and federal criminal charges. Unlike other recent first ladies, she also hasn’t stayed in the public eye by writing a best-selling memoir, earning lots of money by giving paid speeches, or launching a foundation devoted to important global causes.

Instead, Melania Trump keeps mostly to herself, according to a new profile in the New York Times. She privately lends support to her husband’s political ambitions and defends him when it comes to his legal battles.

For example, she expressed anger to people in her inner circle about how his attorneys handled the lawsuit filed by E. Jean Carroll, sources told the New York Times. Carroll won $5 million in damages in a trial after accusing Trump of sexual abuse in the 1990s and defamation after he left the White House. When Melania saw coverage of her husband’s deposition in the case, she was “livid” about why her husband’s attorneys didn’t raise more objections, the New York Times said. She also was “skeptical” of Carroll not being able to recall the precise date of her alleged assault.

For the most part, Melania Trump spends her time in pretty low-key ways, according to the New York Times. Some would say that she now leads a “small life,” while her biographers have said she always preferred to be a private person and to cultivate an air of mystery.

The woman who once hosted state dinners and mingled with the likes of Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and the late Queen Elizabeth II has retreated into to a world that’s limited to a “small circle” and includes her 17-year-old son Barron, her immigrant parents and some close friends, the Times said. She likes “spa days” at Mar-a-Lago or Bedminster, her husband’s private clubs, though she’s never seen working out at any of the club’s fitness centers.

The New York Times said Melania Trump also likes to get her hair done, meet with her long-time stylist and keep up with the news by reading the Daily Mail, the conservative British tabloid. She sometimes joins her husband for Friday night dinners at one of their clubs or shows up at the occasional charity dinner, but her “most ardent pursuit” these days is helping Barron with his college search.

As for media appearances, Melania Trump maintains a social media presence, but mostly to hawk NFTs that sell for $50-$75 each and that have included digital drawings of her eyes and of famous U.S. landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore, according to the New York Times and other publications.

First Trump, Now Melania?

Melania Trump is releasing an America themed #NFT collection ahead of July 4th:
the “1776 Collection”

She previously auctioned an NFT painting of her eyes for #Bitcoin ???? pic.twitter.com/sN5y5aNHK7

— Noir Ventures ⚡️ (@Noir_Ventures) July 1, 2023

Melania Trump also just launched a series of digital tokens that celebrate the Apollo 11 moon landing. But this project has landed her in some hot water. He use of an iconic 1969 photo of astronaut Buzz Aldrin walking on the lunar surface appears to violate NASA’s regulations, which bar the use of NASA imagery for digital tokens, Gizmodo reported. 

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, Melania’s former friend with whom she had a high-profile falling out, blasted the former first lady for engaging in more “grift” with her Apollo 11 NFT collection.

Melania Trump continues to use her former FLOTUS position to grift.
Melania’s latest NFT drop that celebrated the Apollo 11 lunar landing prominently used a photo from NASA’s archives, which is a VIOLATION of the space agency’s image usage rules. https://t.co/aVGQqBMnNR

— Stephanie Winston Wolkoff (@SWinstonWolkoff) July 22, 2023

Melania Trump has said that the portion of the proceeds from her NFT sales will be donated to Fostering the Future, an initiative she said she launched to support educational opportunities and scholarships for children aging out of the foster care system.

However, this initiative remains something of a mystery. The New York Times reported that no charity with the name Fostering the Future or Be Best is registered in Florida or New York. Someone familiar with the program, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the Times that they “would not offer details or disclose how many scholarships have been awarded, saying only that it was ‘more than two.’”

One of those scholarship recipients, Michael Weitzman, told the Times that he received money for four years at Oral Roberts University through a mentor, who knew a friend involved with the Trumps. This mentor told Weitzman, who spent his childhood living in 12 foster homes, that he “might know somebody really rich” who could pay for him to go to college.

The day after the mentor floated the idea, he heard from Melania Trump’s public relations team asking if he would participate, via Zoom, in a Fox News interview with the former first lady. The scholarship was announced during the May 2022 interview. Weitzman told the Times he hasn’t had any interactions with her since and he never had to fill out any paper work to apply for the scholarship.

”I haven’t met her in person. I wondered often if I would and would love to,” he said. “I’m beyond grateful. There’s no reason that anybody should have done this for me.”