Why has Melania Trump returned to public life now?

With her narrowed, glowing eyes and pursed lips, Melania Trump looks more like the rich aunt with the Birkin bag than the sweet Barbara Bush-style grandmother who tries to feed you the contents of her kitchen cupboards. Her beauty and her style of dress make her more suited to a catwalk than the West Wing of the White House; her coldness is palpable. This, and her absence from public life, make her the most mysterious and unpopular First Lady in American history.

Melania has been largely uninvolved in her husband’s recent presidential campaign and understandably absent from Donald Trump’s four recent trials, including the criminal case in which he was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels. Aside from a few sightings at Mar-a-Lago, the couple’s Palm Beach resort, it’s fair to wonder if Melania is still in the country. When 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks shot Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania a few months ago, his wife watched on television.

But now, for the first time since her husband’s presidency, the former FLOTUS is speaking out. Earlier this month, she released “My Story, My Perspective, The Truth” in a video on social media that will culminate in her forthcoming memoir. Melaniawhich is set to be released on October 8, less than a month before the presidential election. Why now, you may ask, after she said nothing of substance for four years and barely said anything even during her time in the White House?

While the about-face in her PR strategy is intentional, the methods are certainly strange. And so far, her sudden reemergence in public life has raised more questions than it has answered. Her X-account has posted eight perfectly filmed video clips, all in black and white or sepia tones, in which Melania talks about everything from FBI raids: “The FBI raided my home in Florida and searched my personal belongings. This is not just my story, it serves as a warning to all Americans, a reminder that our freedom and rights must be respected” to motherhood: “The lessons I learned from this experience are profound and have shaped me in ways I never imagined” to Bidenomics, free speech and, bizarrely, her nude modeling photos.

In the most notable video, she asks: “Why am I so proud of my work as a nude model?” while images of John Collier’s Lady Godiva and Michelangelo’s David. “The more pressing question is, ‘Why did the media decide to examine my glorification of the human form in a fashion photoshoot?'” The problem is, they haven’t. At least not for nearly a decade. Mrs. Trump’s nude photos – one for a French magazine in 1995, then another for British GQ on Trump’s private jet in 2000 – have barely been mentioned since the run-up to the 2016 election. While it may have been a flash in the pan for the rest of the world, the media focus on Melania’s supermodel past is clearly something that has been on her mind for the past decade, and I suspect it will feature heavily in her memoir.

Attempting to present a counter-narrative to something no one is really saying, the videos are a window into what the former and possibly future first lady is thinking, what troubles her, and the fact that she may not be as immune to public attention as she has long seemed. According to aides close to her, “Melania felt attacked by the media after repeatedly letting her in and screwing her over, particularly the Daily Mail.” In fairness, while Melania committed some glaring faux pas, like the “I really don’t care, do you?” coat during a visit to a detention center for migrant children, she has had a pretty rough road as first lady. In her first few months in the role, designers refused to dress her. Marc Jacobs said he had “no interest” in her wearing his clothes, while Tom Ford claimed “it doesn’t necessarily match my image.” After photo shoots with Barbara Bush, Laura Bush, Nancy Reagan, Michelle Obama and most recently Jill Biden, when she fashion Editor Anna Wintour was asked why Melania did not appear in fashion as First Lady she replied: “I think it is important for fashion to support women who are driving change in this country.”

If the enigmatic teaser videos don’t hook you, don’t worry, there’s more. Melania Trump also sells her own merchandise. This week, the former First Lady unveiled her “2024 Limited Edition Ornament Series” titled “Merry Christmas, AMERICA!”, in which she sells brass Christmas tree ornaments for £90 a piece.

Unlike her husband, Melania Trump is perfectly happy away from the public eye. It took her more than six months to move from New York City to the White House after her 2016 election victory, and it is widely speculated that if the Trumps win in November, she would not even consider moving to Washington entirely. She does what she likes, and what she likes is avoiding attention and not telling anyone what she thinks. But her virtual absence from the campaign trail and the center of American political life is untenable. Her recent jump into the news cycle is her acknowledgement of that. The memoirs, the videos, the Christmas baubles: this is how she is correcting her multi-year retreat. This suggests that, like her husband, she is willing to change her strategy when she has something to sell. If she does it right, Melania could be just what Trump’s campaign needs.

[See also: Volodymyr Zelensky takes his war to small-town America]