Barbara Bush’s memorial service today at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston was packed with political luminaries from both sides of the political aisle, but there was a conspicuous absence from the gathering of former presidents and other noted government veterans: the current president of the United States.
While President Trump had issued a face-saving statement earlier in the week that “To avoid disruptions due to added security, and out of respect for the Bush Family and friends attending the service, President Trump will not attend,” it is common knowledge that no one in the Bush family wanted him there after his horrendously disrespectful treatment of Barbara’s son Jeb Bush during the Republican primary in 2016.
In his stead, he sent his wife Melania who looked unusually happy to be let out of her gold-plated cage at the White House. Seated in the front row of the church with Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack and Michelle Obama, Melania smiled beamingly while chatting with Trump’s predecessor whom she was seated directly next to.
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President Obama’s charm seemed to be the missing ingredient that the first lady needed to transform her normally sullen face into a canvas of laughs and smiles. Looking at the pictures of Obama and Melania together reveals a side of the first lady that she doesn’t often expose publicly, and given the salacious accounts of her husband’s dalliances with porn stars and Playboy models while she was pregnant with their son together, it’s doubtful that she expresses much in private either lately.
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Although the “Free Melania” movement adherents express pity on the wronged spouse married to a serial philanderer, others see her as having knowingly chosen her own fate and have less sympathy for her golden manacles.
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Still, most people will see the photo above and feel a deep understanding of the relief she must feel. After all, how would you feel if Trump suddenly disappeared and instead you were with a charming, intelligent and handsome replacement? It would be a dream come true.
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