First lady is facing increased scrutiny as political experts suggest she is behind US president’s recent volte-faces on Gaza and Putin
When Melania Trump arrives in Britain for her husband’s second state visit next month, it will not just be the photographic pack straining every lens for clues as to her opaque mood or signs of froideur in their marriage. It will also be British officials.
Six months into his second term as US president, a period in which Donald Trump has pirouetted on just about every big international issue, mandarins in Whitehall have realised they need to focus less time on trying to tame him, and more on looking at his wife.
Trump’s recent golfing visit to the UK underlined the feeling that the first lady is the single biggest influence on her husband – and intend to adapt accordingly. They believe Melania was behind Trump’s recent volte-face declaring Palestinians in Gaza were starving; and the president acknowledged it was his wife who had said Vladimir Putin may not have been sincere about wanting a peace deal in Ukraine.
It is not just what the president says about the first lady in public, but the deferential reference to her views in private, according to sources who have spoken to the Guardian. One said: “Starmer has earned Trump’s respect and will tell him in the right way if he disagrees. But she is the one that matters.”
