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The Observer
Michelle Obama
First ladies: voices of reason and compassion, central to US politics today
Michelle Obama’s powerful speech at the Democratic National Convention showed how the roles of leaders’ wives are more important than ever More
Say what you like about Melania Trump, she has done an incredible amount during her time in the White House. She renovated the bowling alley; she revamped the Red Room; she broke ground on a private tennis pavilion. Now, the indefatigable first lady is trying her hand at horticulture: on Monday, Trump announced that she is overseeing a renovation of the White House Rose Garden. “Planting a garden involves hard work and hope in the possibility of a bright future,” she explained.More than 150,000 Americans have died with Covid-19 and the pandemic is nowhere near under control in the US. Nearly half of adult Americans are jobless and 28 million are facing eviction. Heavily armed citizen militias are patrolling US cities and protesters are facing off against federal troops in Portland, Oregon. The US is a huge bin fire and Trump is weeding while it burns. Is the woman completely tone-deaf or is there a strategy behind her sudden passion for gardening?One school of thought is that she has looked at the 2020 election polls, realises her days at the White House are numbered and is rapidly legacy-building – or, perhaps more accurately, legacy-plagiarising. The image-obsessed Trumps have not exactly been subtle about their attempts to portray the first lady as a latter-day Jackie Kennedy, with Donald Trump once announcing: “We have our own Jackie O – it’s called Melania, Melania T.”Trump – or, as her husband likes to call her, “it” – has already mimicked Jackie O’s fashion choices, but now she is appropriating her floral ones: a White House statement about the plans noted that the rose garden will be restored to the design first implemented during the Kennedy administration.The first lady’s attempts to restore the past seem to be working, albeit not in the way she may have intended – shortly after the rose garden renovations were announced, “Marie Antoinette” started trending on Twitter. While Melania T may be attempting to channel Jackie O, it looks as though she can’t help giving off strong Marie A vibes. More
Opinion
Nikki Haley
Nikki Haley has gotten where she is by embracing oppression, not fighting it
Arwa Mahdawi
The successes of women like Nikki Haley are held up as ‘proof’ misogyny and racism don’t exist More
A former senior aide to Melania Trump who helped oversee Donald Trump’s inauguration has written an “explosive” memoir detailing her 15-year friendship with the first lady, according to reports. Stephanie Winston Wolkoff was appointed as an unpaid adviser to the first lady shortly after Donald Trump won the 2016 election, and she played a high-profile […] More
Almost 100,000 Americans have died from Covid-19. Here is that tragic story in figures As the death toll of Covid-19 nears 100,000 in the US: these lives lost, and missed Coronavirus – latest global updates Get a fresh perspective on America – sign up to our First Thing newsletter LIVE Updated High school graduates in […] More
Reade sat down with Megyn Kelly for on-camera interview Personal valet to Trump test positive for coronavirus House announces task force to investigate ‘China’s cover-up’ Trump shelves CDC’s reopening guidelines for being too cautious Three million more Americans file for unemployment Revealed: Amazon told workers sick leave law doesn’t cover warehouses Live global updates Get […] More
Malcolm Turnbull on Donald Trump: ‘You don’t suck up to bullies’ Donald Trump and Malcolm Turnbull meet for the first time onboard the USS Intrepid in New York in May 2017. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images In this extract from his memoir, the former Australian prime minister recounts his deals and negotiations with the US president […] More
Donald Trump has shaken up his communications operation by hiring Kayleigh McEnany, a controversial spokeswoman for his re-election campaign, as his fourth White House press secretary, according to multiple media reports. She replaces Stephanie Grisham, who had only been in the position for nine months and was the first press secretary in modern times never […] More
