'Melania plays the long game': Analyst warns Trump's wife's absence is 'calculated'

Former First Lady Melania Trump continues to be largely absent as her husband tries to claw his way back into the White House — and it is by design, wrote Mary Jordan for The Washington Post.

But not, as is commonly assumed, because she has lost her loyalty to a husband who was convicted of falsifying hush payments to an adult film star he slept with early in their marriage.

Rather, she said, it is because Melania is calculating the exact moment to help her husband with the most impact possible.

"For those now suggesting Melania’s absence is a sign of trouble in her marriage or political indifference: Think again," wrote Jordan.

"I spent several years interviewing people in Europe and the United States who knew Melania at every stage of her life, including as a youth in her native Slovenia. I have been at events where she has spoken and even had a rare conversation with her. This is what I know: She and her husband are alike in many ways. They’re often underestimated. But they are fighters who don’t give up, they never stop calculating their next move, and they are exceptionally attuned to the power of photos and images."

True, she was enraged at the whole hush money issue, and that is why she didn't turn up to support him at the court in Manhattan — but she's still fighting for Trump, wrote Jordan. She just knows that when she is invisible most of the time, the few moments she comes out to speak get massive attention.

For example, Jordan continued, "On Sunday, when Melania made her first substantive public comments in almost four years" following the assassination attempt against Trump on Saturday, "30 million people viewed the post on X. Millions more heard about it on TV. She is expected to show up on the final day of the convention, and that photo of the Trumps together will be seen everywhere."

"When needed, she deploys her power," wrote Jordan. In one of the most obvious examples, "In November 2016, she agreed to a rare TV interview on CNN just ahead of the election and downplayed her husband’s 'boy talk' on the 'Access Hollywood' tape, and called him a 'gentleman' and a supporter of women" — indeed, she was the one who crafted Trump's talking points that it was just "locker room talk."

In short, Jordan concluded, "Melania plays the long game and doesn’t do anything hastily. It might be wiser to be thinking less about where Melania is and more about what she is planning next."