Leave her alone. America loves her, beautiful, quiet and not pushy.
Breath of fresh air
9
Amen to Maureen Dowd, one of my favorite columnists, and who I have tried to emulate in my own writing. You go girl!
37
Really, Maureen? Let FLOTUS have a personal life where every expression isn't interpreted as undermining the presidency. Did we scrutinize Michelle for not accompanying Obama on every foreign trip? Implying that Melania's role is at her husband's side doesn't respect her as a woman capable of making choices on how she lives her life. Perhaps she has interests, official duties, social initiatives, and parental responsibility. Stop reading her every gesture as marital difficulty or political statement. Write something substantive.
67
"Barack Obama was always calling to our better angels." Not according to Ms. Dowd's columns of the past. The only angel President Obama had room for in his heart was himself. He let ISIS grow, let chemical warfare go unattended, let Korea build its missiles and nukes go unchecked, and let my neighbor lose her doctor.
68
Money and nothing else motivates the GOP
73
Dowd always uses her columns to circle back to her favorite obsession - Clinton bashing. What else is new?
209
It is rarely that Ms Dowd sounds desperate. The distance between her rapier and her adversary is presumably infinite.. But here Ms Dowd engages in the most unacceptable, and possible desperate attack on President Trump by seeming to know the heart of the First Lady, and in so doing dares to imagine she can create and widen a breach between the president and his wife. This is the stuff of salacious tabloids. not the opinion page of an increasingly lost paper.
90
Even if the story about Stormy is true and even if they get divorced, Trump will possibly win reelection. Even if he is impeached, a Trump replacement will rise to the occasion because Trump was elected by an angry mostly white middle America. Until the Democrats figure out what made middle America mad and cynical, they will loose again. The answer is not obsessing about immigrants or globalization of everyones job or being a smug ultra progressive. Its about serving the people who elect you. Plain people with modest incomes for whom immigrant problems are not even in the top ten priorities. People who do not want their jobs outsourced to the world. People for whom being a smug progressive is an indulgence and reeks of eletism and not a way of life.
Of course much of these concerns are narrow minded and short sighted, but a winning Democratic candidate is going to have to articulate how he/she will remember and fight for the Americans living modest lives mostly away from the lifestyles of the coastal cities. Bill Clinton with all his silly drama was able to connect, Hillary was not.
31
Enough with Melania as some sympathetic, dignified, respectable figure done in by a boor of a husband.
This woman at 30 years old, eyes wide open, moved in with & shacked up for 5 years with a notorious con old enough to be her father. She watched as he scammed & ripped people off, only caring for what new Hermès bag the ill-gotten wealth would buy. And 5 years later, at 35 years old, she gleefully married him. There’s no arguing that she knew exactly what she got into, and never minded.
They are co-conspirators. She’s as pathological & nearly as narcissistic as he is. She’s only a tad more conniving.
For years she’s lied about having a college degree which she does not, and would still be lying about it too had journalist Julia Ioffe not exposed it as a lie. As retaliation, the 3rd Mrs Trump callously insisted that Ms. Ioffe had brought it upon herself when Mrs Trump’s alt-right fandom pummeled Ms Ioffe with anti-Semitic attacks.
A proud birther, this recent immigrant who in her mangled English demanded to see the birth certificate of the then sitting historic U.S president, also smugly touted her own “right way” migration, while insisting that undocumented kids brought here years ago ought to be deported.
The attempts to fluff-up and absolve this very complicit, character-deficient and vapid woman would be amusing, if it weren’t brazenly disingenuous.
Can’t imagine what would have happened if Mrs Obama posed nude & lied about having a college degree!
283
Henry Kissinger: “I was eager to crack at the ‘mystery’ of Deng Xiaoping. But it turned out there was no mystery, in fact, there was nothing at all.” Likewise, Maureen Dowd should know better than ascribing the word “sphinx” to who may as well be an empty shell. No one is mysterious anyway, we just have quirks. These words unduly elevate (sub)ordinary beings to a higher plane with disastrous consequences, as history should remind us. As to Melania T, one glaring fact, all sphinxing aside, is that she married a man who incarnates the dictionary definition of boorishness. From this fact alone, one may deduce what one will.
53
One of the enduring images from the inauguration is when Trump and his wife drove up to the White House to be welcomed by the Obamas. Trump barged out of the car and up the steps, leaving the Obamas to rescue Melania and escort her gently into her new home. Class vs crass indeed.
186
Mueller has already done a fine job...Ask yourself if this President has behaved like a strong leader who can handle the pressure of this job.......He has NOT...The endless tweeting, his anger, the rants, the level of hysteria........Ask yourself: Has he behaved like a strong leader? Can you picture him in the rubble of 9/11 with first responders? Comforting the parents of Sandy Hook? Singing "Amazing Grace" at the funeral of murdered church members at Bible study? Innocent or guilty--this Emperor's clothes are an empty suit held together with his inability to connect to the realities of what this job entails.....He has collapsed like a cheap tent during an investigation.. He has proven that under pressure, he is weak, mean, and incompetent.
Want that in charge when this country has a real crisis to face?
129
Isn't it really simpler than that? A bunch of people got conned, and it is going to be very hard to disengage them from their fantasy because they have a lot invested in believing that everyone should own a gun, nobody really landed on the moon, and the human race was genetically engineered by aliens from the planet Nibiru. Trump is one of them.
47
Maureen Dowd's article was truly amazing.!!!
Poor Melania. Poor us.
20
Madam, there are always veneers when the "game" of politics is played. Why? It has to do with the composite parts of the etymological root of the word. Power has to do with wealth and prestige, and all three are major motivators in the modern world. It seems that for most politicians a written legacy, that is, exposure in historical annals is quite enough to insure that they have acted rightly, regardless of any sense of that or good or anything which has a catchy ring to it which elicits admiration. In order to gain a legacy, one must exercise what power one has to form policy. There are exceptions to this, one being the super-rich. If it is true that Trump is someone who has garnered power without having a political program, then one might well ask: What or who is behind the phenomenon? The answer, so I read, is that the Scaife proclivities in politics fill the void which comprises the veneer of Trump's egocentrism (a truly kind epithet), and so we have the legacy of a deceased person exercising a measure of control. Something of an anomaly. Then, of course, as well, there is the presence of the Mercers. Puppetry is behind the unraveling (I could have sworn the French word was "derollement"), but with time, it seems there are many things which seem to do so uninterruptedly. "That's Plutocracy."
10
If Melania doesn't leave Trump now, for both her own and Baron's sake, she never will. Better to cut and run than be tied to a sinking ship.
39
Dowd is giving much too much credit to Melania. She's nothing more than an opportunitistic "model" in a situation of her own making and support. She's as vapid as her little husband.
174
re:The subordinate who complained was given a new job.
Ms Dowd left out that the subordinate was given a promotion AND a new job.
50
Why do so many people complain so vociferously about Ms. Dowd's continuing obsession with badmouthing Hillary? That is a given in any column about the last election or Trump, or pretty much any column. She apparently can't stop herself from writing anti-Hillary stuff or she continues to do so because she enjoys getting a rise out of so many readers. Either way ll you upset readers can stop yourselves from reading her columns. As for me I enjoy her snark. I just tune out the anti-Hillary parts of it.
30
Excellent column, Ms. Dowd, thank you.
2
I am still struck by the fact that Ms. Dowd would compare Hillary to Melania. The former is still one of the most qualified people to have run for President of the United States and the latter is, well, a true Trump. She values taking over giving, promoting the Trump brand and expensive designers over education and women’s issues etc.
“Free Melania?” Ha! She’s happily ensconced at Mar a Lago and, unbelievably, our White House. We’ve paid many times over for her and her family to live well. Shame on us. Please read The NY Times article about the declining of democracy around the globe. Let’s stay focused on what matters. We’ve wasted enough time on trying to find redeeming qualities in either President Biff (he so reminds me of Biff from Back to the Future...so help us all) or his family. They’re not there and the Trumps care not for democracy. Let’s turn our attention to getting Steven Miller, Jared and Ivanka out of our White House and, of course, Biff. These are frightening times. Let’s not pretend they aren’t. Democracy is at stake. This can’t be overstated.
71
So Ms Dowd finally gets it! Yes, Mr Trump is a horrible person, but we knew that already. If you, and many of your colleagues, haven’t spent 2016 skewering Hillary while giving a gigantic pass to Trump, we may have been spared this disaster. As for Melania, sorry no sympathy. Or do you think she marry him for “love”? Oh, honey...
52
This would have been an okay column but you had to inexplicably conflate Hillary actions/decisions with the monster and the even more depraved GOP. Why does Hillary have to be so perfect? We accept frailties and faults in men, but never a woman. Hillary was ROBBED of the presidency. It's a shame. It's our loss. What is fascinating is all the attention Hillary gets from the media since the village idiot was elected. My gawd, you'd think she was the president. In spite of the fact that she has led a pretty quiet life since the election, she is constantly dragged into the media and vilified. Its horrible. I think we are just like the Romans and this is our demise.
With the current Congress in place, maybe its just as well she didn't get elected. If we don't clean out the Congress, we as a nation are sunk. If we don't try to unite our nation and quit with the state run news and media network vs the rest of the media, then how can we unite. It's so very scary and frustrating to watch.
54
I'm sorry, Maureen, but your column sounds hollow this time, after your past columns referring to President Obama as "Barry" and continually criticizing Hillary. Melania simply recognizes that she's out of her depth as a First Lady. Her decision to marry Trump and bear a child by him simply points to her being a golddigger and nothing more.
72
With our current leadership one aspect of US culture becomes dominant which I have always known although it appeared to me to be marginal and subterrestial. I am used to polite and sometimes vicious university discourse and do encounter daily ordinary American behavior, dress and speech. Rooted in Europe, like Melania, "America" always appears to me within a cosmopolitan perspective, in which light its culture, values and history gain their special status. For a year now, an aspect of US life gains dominance that I always knew as unrelated to America's position in the world: provincialism, lack of education, crudeness and lack of serioussness: This is a shock! Our leadership should at the very least understand world reality in geopolitical, economic and historical ways. It does not. During the campaign Trump trashed TPP and NAFTA. Suddenly, at Davos, TPP appears to be of interest again. I suspect a few educated economists got a message to Trump that there is a big wide world in which America acts, and yes, that world can get along without us. And it will be our loss and continue to make America irrelevant on the path of Trump's 2016 campaign rhetoric. Perhaps some country bumpkin can somehow manage in a fog of ignorance and bluster, but not POTUS: Real people from Peking to Shanhai and Singapur, Moscow, Berlin, Rotterdam, Paris, Ottawa and Mexico City are constantly watching what POTUS says, and are adjusting their politics and decisions. Let America wake up!!
14
Ms. Dowd is often entertaining as she is in this case of this piece.
However, she never had a kind word for either HRC or Obama until DJT became president. I'm not sure if she hurt Hillary but she certainly didn't help her. As far as Obama goes...just saying we replaced class with crass and that he appealed to our better angels is high praise from Dowd indeed. Unfortunate that she just figured out something many of us knew long ago.
48
Enough with the Melania as some sympathetic, dignified, respectable figure done in by a boot of a husband.
This woman at 30 years old, eyes wide open, moved with and shacked up for 5 years with a notorious con old enough to be her father. She watched as he scammed and ripped people off, only caring for what new Hermès bag the ill-gotten wealth would buy. And 5 years later, at 35 years old, she gleefully married him. There’s no arguing that she knew exactly what she got into, and never minded.
They are co-conspirators. She’s as pathological and almost as narcissistic as he is. She’s only a tad more conniving.
For years she’s lied about having a college degree which she does not, and would still be lying about it too, had journalist Julia Ioffe not exposed it as a lie. As retaliation, the 3rd Mrs Trump callously insisted that Ms. Ioffe had brought it upon herself when Mrs Trump’s alt-right fan base pummeled Ms Ioffe with anti-Semitic attacks.
A proud birther, this recent immigrant who in her mangled English demanded to see the birth certificate of the then sitting historic U.S president, also smugly touted her own “right way” migration, while insisting that undocumented kids brought here years ago ought to be deported.
The attempts to fluff-up and absolve this very complicit, character-deficient and vapid woman would be amusing, if it weren’t brazenly disingenuous.
Can’t imagine what would have happened if Mrs Obama posed nude & lied about having a college degree!
43
You made your bed of nails when you elected this idiot America; 63 million of you. 90 million of you couldn't be bothered to vote at all. How's that working out for you? You lie on your bed of nails now.
101
Mrs Trump deserves better treatment than this.
16
re: Hillary
"flawed"
When Obama called our better angels, yours had their ears plugged, yelling "La la la la I can't hear you."
77
Maureen- I get that you are a Republican (or at least your bro is). I also get that you are a Clinton hater. But please.... stick to the destruction of Trump. Hillary would have made a phenomenally great President and she’s a good and great woman. That includes her forgiveness of Bill’s mid-behavior.
110
I should have known!
Here I was actually enjoying and agreeing with Mo-Do when of course, half way through, it turned into More-Mean Dowd's weekly diatribe against Hillary Clinton. Why do I even bother anymore???
80
I am getting my incense and Christmas greenery ready to refresh the White House for the next occupants.
10
Bravo! Astonished at the hostility to Maureen Dowd expressed below, from all quarters. Guess some folks just can't stand assertive women.
14
Dowd forgot to mention the so-called "independant" press as another institution that has been corroded and is now immoral. Of course, her biased opinions have contributed to this corrosion - but she overlooked her own failures. When Dowd accomplishes one thousandth of what Trump has accomplished in his life, I might pay a little attention to her.
5
I just read Grant's memoirs and was amused by the account of Grant riding by his troops thinking they must be very happy with their latest situation which saw them travelling through the south living off the land with its surfeit of poultry, sufficient to feed his army. Instead, the cry that rang out most often was "hard tack!" referring to as wiki puts it:
" a simple type of biscuit or cracker, made from flour, water, and sometimes salt. Hardtack is inexpensive and long-lasting. It is used for sustenance in the absence of perishable foods, commonly during long sea voyages, land migrations, and military campaigns.[1]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardtack
Right about now I'm getting a yearning for the journalistic equivalent of hard tack. At least we are getting some criticism of handing nominations to the Clintons, lest we squander it all on more turkey campaigns.
7
Brilliant. Sadly, we taxpayers had to pay for her little tantrum as one person commented (would like to see limits in the future on how much we have to pay for golf boondoggles, marital tiffs and other non essential travel by POTUS/FLOTUS). Somehow I think Melania and the DJT ex-wives club will be laughing all the way to the bank (given their own NDA’s they no doubt signed) when this is all over. She is definitely not a victim.
32
Some of us still haven't gotten over Melania's Christmas decorations at the WH... that long, spooky corridor of white lights and white sticks. Surely this is a clue to her personality we mustn't overlook.
27
"He’s an embarrassing husband...embarrassing president...embarrassing leader of the free world....How did we drop so far and so fast from class to crass?"
Ms Dowd.
You remember Slick Willy. Embarrassing husband; embarrassing president.
You remember W. Embarrassing president--no leader of the free world except for pathetic Tony Blair
You remember Nixon. Embarrassing president; embarrassing human--except to Kissinger--paradigmatic foul mouthed liar.
You remember JFK. Embarrassing husband, embarrassing president--if only in retrospect due to Vietnam lies; a fraud, peddling Sorensen's work as his own--though with a payoff--not unlike Stormy's.
He's the forerunner of W's second inaugural--moronically bastardizing 'freedom' and 'liberty' 40 + times without defining them; without be able to define them. (Sensible uses spell-out Whose? Free-from what? To do what?)
JFK sold himself and the country as leaders of the "free world"--without spelling out anything. Thus "free world" became nominal--like a proper name--or a feeling--no description needed--might as well call him leader of whoever will follow. As in "With us or against us"--where "with us" is "free".
And now we have the champ of "free (from law and logic) marketing"; free to peddle snake oil to the god-story deluded, praying for political panaceas, nursing hatred.
Remember Jefferson, the father of his slave, Sally Hemmings's, six children, starting at her age 16, if not younger.
"How did the USA drop so far so fast"??
23
Go Canada, couldn't have said it better myself
1
Rational people don't expect their presidents literally to be paragons or something other than mere mortals. But we might still be shocked if one ostentatiously and shamelessly flouts decorum and decent norms. Not every act of discretion equals hypocrisy.
7
When I came across the line about Obama speaking to our better angels, I had to check to verify the author.. Can't recall a more positive comment about the former president from Dowd, but a few lines later, there she was, the old Maureen, taking potshots at Hillary.
60
My thoughts, exactly. Maureen spent 8 years hating President Obama, referring to him as Barry, instead of President Obama or Mr. Obama. Her disrespect for him was the theme of her entire 8 year collection of columns.
She absolutely deserves trump. They are both as hateful as possible.
61
1) Bernie could not have beat Trump. 2) Burns Snider's punishment fit the misconduct and is the same or similar to what he'd have received in most American business and industry. Sexual harassment isn't new. The public and private sectors have been addressing it for decades now.
26
Many and most things that gave America its false identity as a smart, brave, generous country -- the presidency, Congress, sports, faith, Hollywood -- have always been corroded and immoral. We are in a time when the "dark side" is flourishing. All of these movements to shine lights into these corroded and immoral institutions are millennia, centuries and lifetimes too late.
President Trump is a man who has arrived on the scene at the exact correct moment in time to synthesize, synergize, represent, champion and lead the dark angels and angles of our natures. The presidency and the President are supposed to reflect, mirror, resemble and essentially replicate the character, morals, values, etc. of the people of the nation of which they are President. President Trump does this excellently.
Melania & Mr. President do not get along; they may be headed in totally different directions & will probably wind up divorcing at any time during his term(s). This is another prime symbiotic example of the married relationships of at least 50% of the couples in our nation. Melania will go her way & will just fine, thank you. It is obvious that she does not want to be America's First Lady. She should be released from this de facto commitment.
Donald will go his way making deals, playing golf, & probably be very glad to rid himself of the Presidency. The point of achievement is to achieve something; his desire was 2 achieve the Presidency & he did that. He need not stick around.
17
This line says it all. "He’s an embarrassing husband and an embarrassing president and an embarrassing leader of the free world." Arm out. Fist down. Open fingers. Drop the microphone.
28
What's the deal with all of the love for consort Melania all of a sudden? She knew what she was doing all along and what she was getting into. Wasn't he cheating with her while still married to #2? So now she doesn't like it? The White House isn't good enough for her, it's a "prison"?
Boohoo. So sad.
She could walk away tomorrow and get a 20 million dollar advance for a tell all biography. Or go home to Slovakia. She's got lots of options.
So being first lady is her choice. Why? Money, of course.
In the meantime try to struggle by with houses full of servants, free clothes, vacations on the government dime, etc.
What a trooper!
126
I find Maureen Dowd’s columns too often to be tedious, uninformative exercises written in the superficial tone of an adolescent who has recently discovered sarcasm as a stylistic device. Today’s column is a typical example. Such shallowness and callowness are unbecoming in a chronologically mature columnist in such a prominent venue, and unbecoming to the venue.
As commentator James P in Colorado wrote here on August 19, “Give your column space to a writer with more wisdom and vision and less spiteful pride.” I nominate Timothy Egan.
The gold standard for profound humor and wryness in the work of a Times columnist continues to be that of Russell Baker, whose last column ran on 12-25 1998. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/25/opinion/observer-a-few-words-at-the-en...
64
"an embarrassing husband and an embarrassing president and an embarrassing leader of the free world." Trump is indeed an embarrassment, but only to others.
Trump is psychologically immune from self embarrassment.
52
A sensible article on the present state of our union inevitably devolves, in a Maureen article, to criticisms of Hillary or Barry (although today she mentioned the word "class" in connection with Obama).
24
Maureen,
Yes, Melania Trump is a person with feelings; her attitudes and behaviors are complex; and, as any human, she deserves our empathetic impulses.
I should have enjoyed this editorial, as am an easy mark for empathy. I cry at movies. Truth be told, I cry when I see very small acts of kindness. But when I finished, I felt sad and frustrated.
You rightly cajole us to look in the mirror, in this "shattering moment" and try to make our government an instrument of our fundamental values. What you miss, is that when you equate the Fall-of-Rome-esque convulsions of the Trump administration and the Republican controlled Congress with Hillary Clinton's overly protectionist treatment of Burns Strider - the real power players in this drama have you right where they want you. Yes, Fox News and now the Russians - having learned at the feet of Lee Atwater, Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh - are happy that there is a Republican base that consistently votes against their interests and clogs the arteries of our democracy, by means of a generation of propaganda-fueled Pavlovian response.
However, an equal victory, is that they have you seriously comparing the resulting epic disaster that is before us with the foibles of Hillary Clinton. It is the oldest of manipulations: divide and conquer.
They want you dispirited and angry, they want you sniping at your own political family. Then, they have a chance at winning the Presidency with 3 million fewer votes.
36
Maureen,
Yes, Melania Trump is a person with feelings; her attitudes and behaviors are complex; and, as any human, she deserves our empathetic impulses.
I should have enjoyed this editorial, as am an easy mark for empathy: I cry at movies. Truth be told, I cry when I see very small acts of kindness. But when I finished, I felt sad and frustrated.
You rightly cajole us to look in the mirror, in this "shattering moment" and try to make our government an instrument of our fundamental values.
What you miss, is that when you equate the Fall-of-Rome-esque convulsions of the Trump administration and the Republican controlled Congress with Hillary Clinton's overly protectionist treatment of Burns Strider - the real power players in this drama have you right where they want you.
Yes, Fox News and now the Russians - having learned at the feet of Lee Atwater, Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh - are happy that there is a Republican base that consistently votes against their interests and clogs the arteries of our democracy, by means of a generation of propaganda-fueled Pavlovian response.
However, and equal victory, is that they have you seriously comparing the resulting epic disaster that is before us with the foibles of Hillary Clinton.
It is the oldest of manipulations: divide and conquer.
They want you dispirited and angry, they want you sniping at your own political family. Then, they have a chance at winning the Presidency with 3 million fewer votes.
10
I have learned over my many years on this earth that we can never judge other people's marriages. We do not know what goes on behind closed doors. We do not know the deal they may have made with each other. They both know what is in it for each other - they made their choice. The 'stand by your man' choice is one many women make - for better or worse for richer or poorer in sickness and in health until death do us part. I couldn't do it but I am not in Melania's shoes.
15
Boss Tweet and Melania are well suited.
Leigh Van Lydegraf Lake Suzy, Florida
7
Just like Trump humiliated the 16 GOP candidates who ran in the primary with him he has now humiliated his wife on the world stage.
Bet she thought she could change his philandering ways - WRONG!
11
Trump makes each wife sign a prenup to pay her $25 million if they divorce. I give Melania about 4 more years of this insulting neocon boor at which point Trump will have been voted out of office in his mid 70s and Baron will be graduating high school. Then I predict she takes the money and makes a new life for herself possibly in another country and with a nicer younger man. Hang in there girl, just a few more years. Come to think of it, that should be the motto for us all politically.
24
No sympathy, she is complicit now and was in 2016!
29
The problem with Bernie is that none of his ideas worked in reality, and Joe Biden didn't run because his son had just died (in any case, he was a terrible candidate when he has run for President in the past - I love Joe, but he's always fumbling speeches and putting his foot in his mouth.) Get your facts right, Mareen. And what Hillary really needed, and didn't get, was the support of educated, influential women like you, who could have rationally evaluated the candidates, seen that Hillary was far and away the most qualified for the job, and solidly stood by her through thick and thin - and defended her through the endless lies and attacks directed at her by the sociopath she had to run against. She was a former first lady, senator and secretary of state...but she had to battle chants to lock her up, being taunted as "crooked" by a vicious bully, being blamed for whatever her husband (a very successful two-term US President) did that anyone didn't like - oh, and corruption and manipulation of our legal system by the FBI and an all-out cyber assault by the Russian government. Yeah, she's smart and tough, and she got more votes. But heaven forfend you write a piece on Hillary - my hero - and just say something nice without a backhanded attack. #Imstillwithher
81
I agree wholeheartedly. My Mother also still calls Hillary her hero. There is such a double standard. Hillary, although not perfect, was our best hope for “a more perfect union.” Although I consider myself a Liberal Democrat I thought Bernie was all talk. He never succeeded at passing any significant bills in Vermont. He would just amend those of others, which is very easy to do once someone else has done the hard work. Like when Hillary, as First Lady, promoted Healthcare reform only to see it realized years as “Obamacare.” I’m sure she, as well as most of our citizenry, was glad to see it realized at all. But she gets more criticism than credit no matter how smart, creative or compassionate she is. She would have helped us build consensus as opposed to the great divisions we have now.
39
Melania is Catholic and the poster-child for why the Pope is right to relegate the sin of divorce to same status enjoyed by masturbation and gluttony. Seriously, divorcing The Donald can't be worth more than a single post-Confessional Hail Mary - if that. Custody of Barron is not an issue. What Judge in her right mind would give that to The Donald? He'd be lucky to get unsupervised visitation. The man is a moral Chernobyl.
28
If I remember correctly, since she did not marry trump in a Catholic ceremony, the church does not recognize the marriage. Therefore, dumping him would not earn her any religious payback.
7
As customary, Dowd’s column is provocative and appealing. I disagree with her on two issues: 1) The Democratic Party has a dearth of possible candidates to convincingly win a presidential election a emblematic of the Democratic Party’s inability to perspicaciously address the concerns of the independents, blue collar workers who previously formed the bedrock of the Democratic Party, and moderate Democrats; 2) her description of the corporate tax cut. As I see it, the issue is more that corporations were given a blank check of sorts without any metrics established to ensure they follow the ‘spirit’ and intent of the tax reform. Not too dissimilar from the largesse the Democrats like to dispense without those recipients having their own skin, responsibilities and expectations in the game.
3
?... Only Donald Trump, a Rat Pack relic ..."
Dear Maureen,
I hope you're not insinuating trump was part of my father's group of friends because that's not the case..
Respectfully,
Nancy Sinatra
92
That "Rat Pack relic" description bothered me too. It seemed
totally irrelevant. The Rat Pack was known more for its banter among the men.
Apparently there may have been some playing around with some of them, but that certainly wasn't what they were known for, and certainly wasn't something they were flaunting publicly. It would be nice if Ms. Dowd explained why she needed to include that sentence?
7
I was confused by the reference as well.
8
Melania made a deal with the devil when she married Donald Trump. If she didn't know the character of the man she would marry then shame on her. All she had to do was access any PC and google his name to see what a chauvinist pig he is regarding how he views women.
But he was rich and an American and offered her a deal she apparently couldn't refuse, or wouldn't.
No surprises here, for Melania. Or for the nation.
Is it November yet?
33
Agree with you on a number of points, but not all. But facts ARE facts; Joe Biden never threw his hat in the ring, for personal reasons. I will never know for sure, but I feel confident that many of us (Democrats) would have been very excited at that prospect for President.
19
I'd wager that Biden was strongly discouraged from running by the Clinton machine, enabled by Obama, who was holding up his end of the deal they cut in 2008.
6
I'm definitely with you on that. As soon as Biden said he wasn't running, a feeling of doom began to set in. I voted Hillary, and I am so glad she is GONE.
10
We have two first ladies who have been struck low by caveman spouses -- who seek to drag around their women by the hair.
Americans would have embraced Hillary Clinton, if only she hadn't defiantly blamed the scorn for her husband's misdeeds on that "vast right-wing conspiracy," the news media, Tammy Wynette and/or Bill's "Other Women." Melania would also have most people now telegraphing their support (or I guess it's tweeting their support nowadays) if only she could show us a human side.
Many first ladies have distinguished themselves with their own good deeds, high-minded missions or even just visible concern for deserving people. We have had first ladies who bested their husbands in the polls and garnered the support of an open-minded nation that yearns to embrace each one of them. We should not shower our sympathy on Hillary Clinton and Melania Trump; that would just aggravate the humiliation. It's just that most people are willing to see each FLOTUS as her own person, who need not soil herself with partisan politics but rather use her platform for good.
And what about their two philandering husbands? They're both misogynistic men who see appealing women as objects on their paths to animalistic fulfillment. These acts should taint their legacies, just as they have our nation.
5
Thanks for pointing out that the Dem's did what they could to lose this election -- we have to spread blame appropriately. Can we all just agree that someone under 60, with some legitimate academic credentials and history in public service, with a normal family, ethical outlook, and genuinely altruistic motives for running should be the Dem candidate in 2020? Oh, wait, he can't run again, and Michelle said she's not interested. . . . . well, surely there's another Obama out there hiding in the woodwork waiting to be a national candidate who's not just the less embarrassing, or most entitled, or best backed by corporate interests?
18
For years, the Republican Party has made the “liberal elite” the boogeyman.
The Republican voters are mad at the liberal elite like me.
I learned I was the liberal elite in the Bush election of 2000.
I grew up in a blue collar family, first generation in my family to go to college.
I worked my way through high school and college, going to a state university in math and computers which I paid for myself. Saved my money and got a masters in engineering which I paid for myself.
But Bush was the regular guy even though he is third generation multi-millionaire, whose family paid for him to go to Yale and then to Harvard.
And what makes Republicans call me a liberal is that I want to help people less fortunate than myself.
Kind of sounds like a Christian but so many Christians I know go to church on Sunday and say buyer beware Monday through Friday.
I want to pay more taxes to help those factory workers with retraining and health care.
But for them, I am the liberal elite and the bad guy.
Go figure.
Obviously, the Republicans have great marketing. In fact, it is Orwellian.
80
I do t doubt your bonafides and empathy but where you lose me as a conservative is when you mandate that I follow your charity leanings via the tax code. Give as much as you like to the poor, the downtrodden, the underprivileged, the sickly and the infirm. Give every penny and every possession you own. But keep your hands out of my pockets.
2
Independent in the South:
Right you are...on all counts.
You just told my story, albeit different college and graduate school majors. My blue collar Rockefeller Republican father (40 years deceased) is probably the most fit decedent in the National Cemetery on Long Island for all the spinning he has been doing in his grave for the last several decades.
The Glengary Glenross snake oil salesmanship strategy (ABC--always be closing) now firmly embedded in the Republican messaging machine poses a major challenge to the Democrats in 2018 and beyond. It's more than time to shut that slimy GOP operation down.
18
@From Where I Sit
First of all my comment was how did I get to be the "liberal elite?" I grew up blue collar, first generation in my family to go to college. Why am I the elite?
By the way, do you take a mortgage deduction and child deduction? For all those that do, that is government subsidized housing and child care that I am paying for. Conservatives don't seem to mind those government tax code subsidies.
But we all mandate others. I have to pay for your mortgage and child subsidies and more military than I like. That's how democracy works.
In terms of liberal programs, we are the richest industrialized country on the planet GDP / capita and we have poverty and places with Black infant mortality worse than Botswana. That is not the USA I want to live in.
But if you don't want to reduce poverty because it is morally the right thing to do, get people educated and working and paying taxes instead of paying for welfare and prison.
Too many conservatives I know seem to prefer paying for prison than paying for preschool.
When Republicans fix poverty and healthcare, I'll vote for them.
And the latest Republican tax bill will not help you. It just gave a tax cut to the billionaires that will add $1.5 Trillion to the deficit over the next 5 to 10 years, not the debt but the deficit.
You and I and your children will be paying for that along with cuts to Social Security and Medicare for your parents.
Good luck to you and yours. I am well off and will retire to Europe.
13
And I’d quit my job tomorrow too if not for the paycheck. It’s really a very small world after all.
7
Ms. Dowd's piece well sums up Melania Trump's accomplishments as FLOTUS: Zero.
Didn't she promise some sort of campaign against cyberbullying? We're waiting.
And "when we look in the mirror and try to figure out who we are now," the image should be no surprise. We are the ones who elected Melania Trump to be our FLOTUS. Indirectly, of course. What a poor choice.
10
No, "we" aren't. The author of our angst is the infamous Electoral College. Their only purpose is to prevent what they permitted to happen:: we have an incompetent demagogue trying to run the country.....into the ground.
16
Hillary bought and cheated her way to the nomination. I'm hoping the Dems have learned something from this experience, not to sell themselves cheaply again.
6
If you are referring to "I am not a Democrat! I am a socialist" Bernie as the choice we should have made, think again. Democrats did the right thing in chosing the only Democrat in the running. Why would we feel any obligation to a little-known senator, who labels himself an Independant and then suddenly decides he should be president and borrows the Democrat label?
16
Melania did not want to be the First Lady but she has acquitted herself with grace and aplomb in a role that is a full time occupation and difficult if you are new to politics.
4
And I, too, am a "Voter in the 49th," delighted to see Issa's decision not to run as he won over Col. Applegate last year by a half point. Handwriting on the wall as Orange County becomes more and more purple. Your feeble attempt to defend a model who found a sugar-daddy and is miserable at the daily cost is noble but foolish. Issa will NOT be missed.
12
Maybe we have met at the protests in front of Issa's office on Tuesday. I am looking forward to flipping the 49th. As a Bay Area transplant to Orange County I was pleasantly surprised that this traditional Republican stronghold is becoming more liberal. Cheers.
12
Regression to the mean. That is the reason that we have Trump as POTUS. Obama was so far out there (I say the best POTUS in my lifetime of 72 years) that this very important "law" kicked in and gave us Trump. To balance things out.
24
Please stop saying this like "When we look in the mirror and try to figure out who we are now.."
Trump is not "who we are". He may be "where we are" but not "who".
"We", mostly outside of Washington D.C., are still largely decent people, looking to do decent things.
Stop telling us that this craziness represents who we are as a nation. This current time is a pot hole in the road. It does not represent anything other than a pot hole in the road.
33
It's more like a crater.
2
I could not agree with you more, Gerry.
2
Don't be naive - 30% of Americans are 100% behind Trump's racism, bigotry and sexism. They eat it up.
19
You just can't fail to tell the truth Cassandra, I mean Maureen, and I love you for it. People who blame you are just enjoying their sense of anger, having moved on from denial. Loss is very hard, but it's wrong to deny your descriptions of reality. Acting like Republicans is not the answer for us.
5
Why all the praise for Melania? What has she accomplished other than marry for money. She is totally complicit.
54
Jacquie
Saturday Night Live performed a wonderful parody of a perfume commercial where Scarlet Johansson played Ivanka wearing the cologne “Complicit.”
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/complicit/3483871?snl=1
The skit was so popular that the word “complicit” was named “word of the year” by Merriam-Webster.
5
Yes, I saw it and loved it, thanks!
1
There's an excellent article in the Philly Inquirer along these same lines by Will Bunch. It seems to be time for some introspection as the country teeters on the edge of autocracy.
http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/will_bunch/trump-fatigue-snl-jes...
4
Enough with the Bernie, HIllary and DNC. However flawed and flawed she is, Clinton garnered nearly 3 million more votes. Whatever her missteps, the general misogyny and racism embedded in American culture is a great deal more to blame for her loss.
51
While it's viscerally satisfying to personally vilify the John Gotti of presidents, it's succumbing to the surface noise generated by the lurid and tawdry Trump drama. Meanwhile, the more substantive erosion is going on beneath it: the accelerated looting of the economy and sabotaging of the social infrastructure of the American Experiment.
We're in the denouement of the Reagan Restoration of robber baronism, hobbling of the middle class and return to a plantation economy of the poor. No more of this social caretaking of weak and sick-let them eat cake: There's Champagne to drink, third homes to decorate and egos to be stuffed with money! (And lackeys to pay off cheaply...)
Perhaps worse, we're on the precipice of authoritarianism, close to one of theocracy, and going in reverse on doing anything about the looming reality of climate change.
I'm not confident of reversal. The Democrats possess a sclerotic, inbred "leadership" and a thin bench. Can the party that can't seem to fight its way out of a paper bag produce a high-quality leader to beat Trump or, God forbid, Mike Pence in 2020? The long list of those touted for 2020 is comprised mostly of has-beens and otherwise incipient losers. Amy Klobuchar, Sherrod Brown, please step up!
It's time to get serious, Democrats. This is an ugly knife fight for the future of democracy. It's not going to be won with naive symbolism, sharing circles and kumbaya singalongs. This is real. And very serious.
38
Hey, Gotti at least know how to dress....and tie a tie.
5
Even middle schoolers are aware of the shame that is everything Trump, so imagine what Barron must endure on a daily basis. Add embarrassing father to the list of Trump's well-deserved titles.
28
Eventually Melania will divorce Donald. She smarter, more refined and sophisticated and more attuned to the real world. Melania, rightfully, protects her son and assures his privacy as well as her own. She also does not need his money and she doesn't like the limelight. She is indeed a Slovenain Sphinx and she does have her moments. I'm sure that Donald has had his hand swatted more than once.
Donald Trump is a national embarrassment. Melania knows it. She knows he is crass, crude and visibly ignorant.
No one should expect Melania to publicly turn on Trump while he is office. But, at a point of her choosing there will be a split. Melania will find her privacy. In the meantime she will preserve her personal dignity through her restraint.
This is not a soap opera. Its simply one more domestic train wreck and Donald Trump is the chief engineer.
Many men and women across the United States will support Melania. There will be no humiliation of Melania. Only of Donald.
23
Well said. "She will preserve her personal dignity through her restraint." She deserves more credit for that than she receives. Without a doubt, there must be much pain there, and there is room for quiet empathy, and not the kind of mockery that she has been subjected to. Many of us have made ill-advised choices at times in our lives. Her silence speaks volumes
11
An acquaintance sent me a copy of the column, but all I can think about in reading these lines is the wild meanness of the writing about Hillary Clinton by Ms. Dowd. Possibly the consequence of the mean writings about Ms. Clinton should be recognized by now.
52
Ms. Dowd has been jealous of Ms. Clinton since Mr. Clinton twice won the White House. Ms. Dowd sounds like a jilted teenager.
15
If Melania married the Donald for the money, it can't be worth it. Besides, can you imagine the pre-nup she's chained to. And she did have a child with him (sorry for the visual). The "Stormy" episode looks like news to Melania and one more humiliation. If she needs money that badly, a collection for her should be taken up to free her from her pain.
7
I used to view Melania Trump as a tragic, even poignant, abused woman. She seemed to exude a quiet dignity — no easy feat — in the shadows of a bloviating, bombastic monster husband. Yet in spite of multiple public humiliations and her husband's overt distaste for immigrants (she is one, after all), she hangs in there and appears to acquiesce to his myriad sociopathic proclivities. I can only deduce that she is in it for the money. Surely she has options; there is a lot of money in the world, and people with whom she might engage who aren't abject evil-doers like her spouse. I'm not an attorney, but I would gladly hammer out a deal for her to escape now with a pocket full of cash and, more importantly, her dignity. Not likely to happen; she seems resigned to her self-imposed fate as dutiful co-conspirator.
14
Am I mistaken or is Ms. Dowd comparing Hillary to Trump?
Which one would she rather have as president?
29
William Rivers Pitt has said--and I believe him----->
Donald Trump would gladly light the world on fire just to see his name printed in the last newspaper ever published.
32
(Surely, the Trump unraveling began with his birth, like Damien in “The Omen.”)
This was an interesting read with many memorable images...the content of the above parenthesis made me laugh out loud (funny because it's true), thanks for the insight and levity, Maureen Dowd.
(...the idea of Melania trolling her disgraceful husband from the inside is much more comforting than I want to admit...)
9
So much praise of late for Melania Trump in the media by so many women. To me, she is a woman who has sold her soul and her dignity for money, power and privilege. Is that the example women want to embrace in this moment? She is the subservient wife of the Misogynist in Chief. So we still live in the 1950's and the most powerful thing a married woman is able to do when it is revealed that her husband was cheating with a porn star right after the birth of their last child is to cancel accompanying him on a business trip? Really?
62
At least Melania stands up to him, unlike the traitors in Congress.
6
Before we all cheer Melania on for having grown a backbone, may I remind everyone that WE paid for her escape to Mar-a-Lago for a 28 hour visit. It would be more commendable, and appropriate, if she used Donald’s money instead. Seems like taxpayers are having to live with her pre-not.
56
Unfortunately we pay for them every time they go there too.
18,000.00 dollars for secret service golf cart rentals for one week.
ughh I think I'm getting sick.......
16
you sleep with the Devil, you reap your just rewards. But for sure, you won't change Him.
24
Misplaced sympathy for a woman who started an affair with an old, fat and unpleasant married man whose primary attraction was his wealth and after detaching him from his previous wife married him to enjoy his crass nouveau riche lifestyle. She probably wants to divorce him but still wants the glitz that comes with bring stuck with him.
55
This column reads like Faulkner or Joyce on steroids. Stream of consciousness. Ms. Dowd: What is your POINT?
20
Melania, surely by now, you have realized loboutin shoes, $60,000.00 coats, and an enormous diamond ring do not guarantee respect. Aren't you weary of the "Save me" jokes on late night. Self respect and the respect of others have nothing to do with wealth. You would find yourself a true role model if you legally separated or divorced that flawed excuse for a husband wh.o has humiliated you at every opportunity. The whole clan is repulsive, Redeem yourself. Move back o New York or to your birth country. We want to applause you, Melania. We are tired of wasting our sympathy on you. There can be no amount of money that is able to buy your acquiescence. Be a role model for women and girls everywhere. "Enough is enough"!!!!
25
She, of all people, should know that no money in the world can buy class, something we and she know, her husband seriously lacks. Women do not look for a passive, hurt wife who succumbs to abuse. We need strong role models and Melania knows it. Follow your heart, and you will find what you need to do Melania.
6
But why, oh why, did she marry him in the first place?
8
She said "we had a connection right away". He likes Eastern European women and she wanted to stop taking low paying underwear modelling jobs.
38
It would be really entertaining, but implausible, if it were just a Netflix series. Stay tuned for the wag the dog finale.
9
It took the Roman Empire 200 years to fall
Do we have that kind of time to wait?
There may be nothing left by then.
35
With 20/20 hindsight, Maureen Dowd seems to finally be willing to call Obama Barack instead of Barry. After her schmoozing with (and on one occasion stenography for) Trump and neverending swipes at the Clintons and Obama, this clever and otherwise enjoyable writing does not ring true.
The gratuitous swipe at Hillary Clinton comes ill from a woman who appears to have never forgiven the Clintons and perhaps the Obamas for some unknown offense. Trump appears to have been more to her taste with his leering appreciation of women.
The clever language is enjoyable, but it does not excuse a variety of things we do know about Melania, such as her $2.9 million award from the Daily Mail which shows her fixed for life. Of course, there's this:
https://www.snopes.com/melania-trump-vs-michelle-obama/
She has, in her own way, supported Trump from the beginning, and defended him, and it's very clever of her to remain silent, which allows people to project on her whatever they wish. Of course, I'm guilty of that too, and think the likely impotence Trump's hair treatment causes is probably a blessing to a woman who knows how to look good, since he's a disgusting object by any standard.
That frozen and expensive White House Christmas is the most I know about her: bad taste at its most elegant, while the Obamas were open and traditional and sharing with their Christmas, more suitable to the country's leader I would think.
Meanwhile, good for her for visiting the holocaust memorial!
74
She has monetary interests in remaining silent and for supporting Trump. However, she is obviously frosty to her husband. It is hard to hide the truth.
3
TM: sometimes ... Trump and her father look almost like twins. Trump has the power to do infinite harm, though, making American small, mean, and hateful.
3
Lot of people have said in the comments that Melania never speaks and she always walks behind Trump. It is possible Melania is uncomfortable in public
Talking in English with her strong accent , since it is not her mother tongue?
She may not have enough vocabulary in English to express her views. Just a thought!
5
She is said to know 6 languages. The silence is certainly wise.
8
Here's a bit more:
"she applied to the school of architecture at the local university, successfully passing the notoriously difficult entrance exams. In those years in Ljubljana, she was focused on school. She didn’t drink, didn’t party, didn’t smoke. Even after she met Jerko [who spotted her and gave her her start] and began dabbling in modeling, she preferred to go home after work, to be with her equally quiet and reserved sister. “She kept to herself, she was a loner. After a shoot or a catwalk, she went home, not out. She didn’t want to waste time partying,”"
9
She knows $$$$$. Can we stop pretending this is a person of substance?
19
Blaming Democrats for the crassest leader America has ever known is a very low blow. To begin with, "the party" didn't nominate anyone. It's the voters in primaries nationwide who nominated Hillary Clinton. I voted for Bernie Sanders, but Hillary won fair and square, one vote at a time. Secondly, it's an abomination to blame anyone for the sins of their husband. The New York Times has no right to tell any woman that she should have divorced her husband to be qualified to run for office. There is no more private and difficult decision a woman will ever have to make. Of all things to bash Hillary for, this the lowest.
92
who will we be able to vote for in 2020?
you must admit that the Clinton's overstayed
their welcome? anyone could have beat DJT
and she was nominated?
2
It is very Trumpian to keep attacking Hillary even though she won the popular vote by a significant margin and the election was likely stolen by GOP voter suppression with Russian assistance. Oh, and just for the record, Obama is no longer president either.
71
So Hillary stronghold claims the victory of Trump the misanthrope is attributed to "voter suppression" by Russia yet Hillary won significantly the popular vote. So, what voter suppression? What segment of voters were suppressed by Russians Blacks, non-Blacks? Russia certainly did not suppress the 53% of white women Trump voters. Go figure.
2
The many criticisms of Melania Trump, the First Lady, are unfounded and unfair. She is being criticized for wearing high heels, wearing black slacks that were definitely not too snug and spending money on beautiful clothes that make her look sensational. She is a striking woman who cannot take a bad photo. She is an intelligent lady who speaks many languages? How many of the New York Times readers can say that?
I think people are extremely jealous of Mrs. Trump and it is coming out in these nasty and mean spirited comments. We have not read or heard the same degree of criticisms for other First Ladies as we are of Mrs. Trump. Is it because they hate her husband so that they find so much fault with her? Probably so. I think she is a wonderful ambassador for America and should be commended and not criticized. She makes an exemplary First Lady and one of our finest.
5
Perhaps you haven't read the comments on this thread that refer to Michelle Obama as "Michael" or the ones that refer to her as "uppity." Geez. Melania knows what Trump values....looks. She married the buffoon knowing he was a cheater and womanizer but most importantly....wealthy. She is no role model.
15
How quickly you've forgotten all the absolutely horrible things written and said about Michele Obama. Melania as "an exemplary First Lady and one of our finest"? Hardly!
17
Sorry, why is she an exemplary first lady? Just wondering...
13
For you to say that there were better candidates than hillary Clinton available like Joe Biden is a joke. Joe would be a poster child for the bad boys for the "me too" movement. Please do not forget that he was the chairman of the judiciary committee and personally humiliated and destroyed Anita hill in the inquiry about Clarence Thomas. Now because of him we have a another silenced woman and a dubious Supreme Court justice.
38
Lots of people take a long walk to soothe their nerves after a spat; only Melania takes a taxpayer-funded jet, and a taxpayer-funded security and personal retinue, to Florida for a night. Her snit-fit cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars. And it's not like she didn't know what she married when she married it.
When and how will we be able to stop this utter degradation and debasement of a Presidency?
59
I think it is time to stop gracing Melania with traits she does not have. Yesterday's NY Times column by Kate Andersen Brower on "The Quiet Radicalism of Melania Trump" tried--but failed--to make the case that FLOTUS "has been anything but a public defender, and, in fact, has been defiant in her silence" about Donald. Maureen's column today citing Melania's "crisp hand swat in Israel or her wish to spend Christmas on a deserted island" does not stop anyone from wondering why the First Lady, supposedly so devoted to Barron that she postponed moving to DC until the end of his school term, keeps her son exposed on a daily basis to his demagogic, racist, predator father. If Melania cared more about protecting Barron from Donald's corrosive influence and less about her designer wardrobe, her divorce filing--along with the Mueller investigation--would be proceeding through the judicial system.
41
Don’t be surprised if Melania is forced to make a statement to refute the obvious matrimonial schism . Trump is a nasty man to cross and Melania is not in a good position to leave him while Trump is still in the White House. Supporting her is the way to help her through this low segment of her life.
7
"And who can forget the crisp hand swat in Israel or her wish to spend Christmas on “a deserted island”?
More to the point, I cannot forget the Vanity Fair cover showcasing Mrs. Trump sitting bejeweled in front of a cereal bowl full of diamonds, twirling the spaghetti-like riches on her fork.
https://www.gq.com/story/melania-trump-gq-interview
Decadence has its price, and she sold herself to Trump for photo ops such as the link shows.
No sympathy for this she-devil either...
56
I totally agree with you Peggy. She knew exactly what she was getting when she married him. Just like her husband, she has no character. We all get what we deserve.
11
Great article. Trump IS NOT the problem. He is a reflection of the problem. In the immortal words of Pogo, "We have met the enemy and he is us." This country has always had an inflated view of itself. Trump is proof we ARE NOT exceptional, unless you're talking about exceptionally stupid. 20% of our voters are overtly or covertly racist. Most Republicans will sell the country to the Russians as long as they get to embrace their Ayn Randian ideology. Evangelicals are hypocrites that espouse morality, but support immorality as long as they get their boy on the Supreme Court.
The one good thing Trump has done is that he has made us look at ourselves. Now we have to decide what to do.
39
Ho long must this go on? Trump is as slimy as it gets, but a seemingly perfect cover for his corporate/political enablers and the real damage they are doing to the environment, justice, education, economy, and everyone not a part of the 1%. Trump makes the Teflon President Reagan look like a fly trap. One can only feel sorry for his wife. It's her move.
9
Trump is only a symptom (albeit a dangerous one) not the cause. The bulk of us are Dickens children hobbled by fear and ignorance while greed and paranoia run the country in the guise of Democracy. Time to wake up and face the day kiddies!
9
Will Air Force One be summoned to bring Melania back for State of the Union address?
13
What a load of baloney.
Our institutions are doing just fine. Progressive overreach is being eradicated; this is as the Founders would have wished. The federal courts are being balanced. Federalism is being restored. Business is growing. Immigrants are not being deoprted wholesale. Sun sun comes up every day.
The only people whining about the ACTIONS of the Trump administration are the pickpocket lefties.
Maybe keeping our claws out of the First Lady would be polite. Need another saucer of milk, Maureen ?
6
Maureen,
Another fab, spot on piece for my Sunday, morning reading enjoyment. Thanks for keeping the spotlight on the character/integrity (LACK THEREOF) re @POTUS. Don't rest; don't quit. Just replace the "bulb" when needed!
2
Do us a favor Melania, spill the beans on your husband. I’m sure there’s enough there to remove him out of office.
You’ll forever be known as the Slovenian Who Saved The World.
18
Probably signed a prenuptial and it will never happen.
Maybe if Soros would guarantee her an income?
1
I'm hoping she's flipped, and will soon be escorted off to witness protection.
1
I hope her quick trip to Palm Beach was to pack up a few things in preparation for exit - go Melania go
17
Thank you again (just kidding) for taking every opportunity you have to stick it to Hillary Clinton. Espcedially while you are leaning so far over backwards to give the current FLOTUS the benefit of the doubt. Remember her "it's just boytalk" comment after the tape emerged? Why elevate her to Chauncey Gardner status and consistently trash a woman whose main crime seems to me to be the fact that she sought power just like the big boys.
45
A woman as young and beautiful as Melania picks the Donald for a mate. Did she fall in love with him or his money? Hmm. Tough thinking through that one. Sorry, Maureen, theres nothing admirable about her. She knew, or shouldve known he was a racist, white supremacist-supporting, lying, cheating fraud. She gets what she deserves, making that choice. Just like anybody who gets involved with or votes for the Donald.
54
No Dowd column, on whatever subject, is immune from a dig at the Clintons.
40
Hope Melania was meeting with a new business partner in Florida to relaunch her brand AFTER divorcing the philandering hypocrite whiny creep of a husband, who back then apparently LOVED IMMIGRANTS, over and over...
His parents were immigrants, two wives were immigrants -- so once Trumpolini got in the folks he wanted, time to shut the door for others, ha-ha, nothing personal, folks!!!
25
"How did we drop so far and so fast from class to crass?"
Deplorables, Russia and Clinton
9
Maureen at ther best. Wicked fun.
9
Agree to the wicked part — more bashing of Hillary Clinton is certainly nasty fiddling while Rome burns — but not the “fun.” It isn’t fun to read one woman kicking another when she’s down mostly for factors way out of her control.
16
"Partly, it was the Democrats’ preference for lecturing and entitlement over winning and wooing."
If the Ds don't those their penchant for identity politics that identify with anyone and everyone who isn't either male or white or heterosexual, they will go down in flames. They have been on the verge of "identifying" themselves right out of relevance for a while now. I'm a middle-of-the-roader and they have begun to nauseate me. While the plight of all those not white, male and straight should be of concern to all right thinking Americans, to focus on that to the exclusion of everybody else is wrong. And a losing strategy.
And people out here feel it. They don't feel that the Ds give a toss about their lives and travails. They're not exotic enough apparently. In fact, according to the nitwit wing of the Democrat part, these folks have no problems because they were born with white and/or male privilege. Tell that to the guy who lost his factory job and has to figure out how to feed his kids. My guess is that he doesn't share the liberal elitist theory regarding his privileged status in life. He isn't feeling so terribly lucky to have been born a white male with all the apparent benefits that automatically confers on him. He missed the part where because of his skin color and genitalia the skids of life are well greased for him. Or maybe he just never learned the secret handshake. Whatever the reason, he ain't voting Democrat for a while.
13
Largely agree. While most of those in charge (political office, c-suites, etc.) ate white males, that doesn't necessarily translate to all white males having privilege.
3
Seriously?
It is the Democrats who want to give the laid off factory workers health care and job retraining and promote solar and new factory jobs to replace the coal jobs lost over the last 50 years.
They also want to improve education to reduce poverty.
What have Republicans done?
The argument I hear is that Democrats haven't done enough so let's vote for Republicans who are even worse.
10
This. This is what the Democratic Party must address (honestly, not with Clintonian superficiality or, more to the point, duplicity) if there is any hope of saving the American Experiment.
2
How about this one: the Trump administration is a dogfight rolling down a hill.
12
Why do you hate Hillary? Bernie never would have won and you know that; Biden - maybe! I don't have to remind you Hillary did win the popular vote.
47
But she lost the all important vote, the actual votes that counted.
The Dems will lose again if they continue to cater to a select group of people rather than embracing everyone. Count on it.
2
Reading your article, Maureen, reminded me that in the book "Fire and Fury" Melania is said to have wept when hearing Donald had won! I believe she did! She may have been hoping to divorce the philandering-pig!
I have not an ounce of sympathy for this woman, she knew full well whom she was marrying! She sold her soul to money and to a pig.
What amazes and distressed me, is that in Barack Obama, we had a scholar, a gentleman and a devoted father and husband....and America's bigots could only demonize this good man and his family! Sick.
64
Melania's father is a retired government official. She knows how clueless Trump is about government on the granular bureaucratic level.
8
It is unlikely that Melanie ever imagined that DJT would be President (I certainly didn’t). We have here a supremely ironic result of the law of unintended consequences; have a little compassion.
1
Speaking of Melania's parents....what is their visa status....chain migration? You know, what Trump is so opposed to.
5
bravo Maureen, our disaster in chief is inspiring your writing.
6
Remember the GOP that used to tout "moral" values. Values are only important if you are a Democrat. If you are Trump and his family, it is now the prerogative of the GOP to look the other way on all the transgressions of the Trump family. I am not just talking about Trump and his use of women, I'm talking about the money the whole family is making off the American people. Hey, when it's money, Melania and the GOP are happy to stick it out with Trump. No matter how corrupt or embarrassing he is. It ain't over yet. The worst is yet to be for both the GOP and Ms. Trump.
28
Obama appeals to the better angels of our nature? Wait a second. What about that photo of him posing with Louis Farrakhan that was kept secret by order of the Black Congressional Congress until it was recently released by the photographer who kept a copy of it? And all those other "angels" that Farrakhan sent to help staff Obama's campaign headquarters in his run for the Senate? In the photo Obama has that same broad smile on his face that we are so used to seeing. What else does it hide? But no, Dowd and the rest of the liberal press always give Obama and Michelle a hug and a kiss while ganging up on Trump and Melania. Now Michael Wolff is even insinuating that Nikki Haley is Trump's mistress! Can you believe that? Now I've got a "dossier" I'd like to sell you.
6
Thank you, Ms Dowd! Not only does the corporate tax cut define us but so too our obsession with defense spending. I walked into my local public library yesterday and browsed the U.S. History nonfiction section. I was stunned to realize that to be proud of the U.S.A. is to agree to be proud of our unparalleled defensive stance in the world. We have assumed this defensive stance in lieu of trusting that we are still as smart, brave, generous and fair as we once thought we were as witness the dismantling of the State Department.
4
Sports and Hollywood never gave us an identity as "smart, brave, generous and fair". They have always been rotten. Athletes cheat and Hollywood invented the casting couch. The only thing new here is that we now know that Hollywood perversions also saturate sports.
9
True, but “Hollywood perversions” saturate ALL of society, in direct proportion to the power of the abuser.
4
Why would anyone refer to him as 'leader of the free world'?
25
He's not. Angela Merkel is.
12
"...they're all turning on each other".
Well, not just within the Republican Party.
It's within the Democrat Party and...
...it's a circular firing squad in Congress.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of us looking for America to improve its standing (not a party's standing), must take matters into our own hands.
Fire them all.
Insist on term limits.
Insist on small hard cap campaign donations.
Insist on all money being removed from lobbying.
It's up to us, they are incapable.
26
Good column....until I found myself saying again, please, Maureen, stop with the Hillary bashing.
You need to get over it. Just like Trump, we have to remind you that she did after all win the popular vote. And also, that, alas, she's not in office now so maybe YOU can stop constantly demeaning her.
61
All true, along with the obvious fact that by default she would have been a far better/less bad choice as President. Maureen, you aided and abetted Trump's election by contributing to the distraction from Trump's deficiency, carping on nonsensical matters, like missing emails.
27
My roommate in college grew up around the corner from Traitor Trump and his family. I'm told that no one wanted to have anything to do with him back in the 1950s. I guess you should have gone back and interviewed some of them in 2016. Especially since, according to my roommate, he's the same now as he was then.
41
One of your ten best columns ever. Give in to your serious side more often. There is a lot there. Thanks.
9
Who better to punish the Donald than his wife, Melania? If, as Ms. Dowd suggests, the First Lady is on a mission, I apologize for thinking she was only eye candy for the morals-challenged president. All the money and power can't sustain a poisonous relationship such as that between Melania and Trump. One might surmise that divorce will be her ultimate revenge.
12
I want Vegas odds on the divorce post 2020. And then I will buy the advanced copies of her book...
1
Underpinning this is a lot of wishful thinking that I doubt will pay off: that people close to Trump will publicly turn on Trump in such as way that even Trump voters will turn away. Sure, Trump is turning off Republicans in Washington who have to deal with him on a regular basis, but the voters who put him in office have already demonstrated that to them, character does not count.
8
Ms. Dowd, that was one of your finer pieces; an incisive look at a fraught relationship with the hilarity and sarcasm of your razor sharp wit. What great...or awful observations you made about what’s really going on between the two. Melania did make a devil’s bargain to marry him in the first place. With all his celebrity we could assume she knew what she was getting into. By the look on her face when she doesn’t think anyone is looking, it turned into to something much more twisted, worse and painful than she ever expected. Your pointing out her sartorial hints, and her subtle or not-so-subtle gestures; such as the hand swatting, the frowns, the hundred yard stare are what little she could do. I think she could do a lot more: like talk to Mueller. Perhaps she’s kept her distance for her own sanity and well being as well as her son’s.
7
Incisive! “How did we drop so far and so fast from class to crass?”
But how can your rhetorical question be answered when ~half of the electorate thinks the opposite?
5
I now understand why Trump is on the couch watching endless hours of TV, tweeting endlessly! We are mired in Potus. Sorry! We don't need tabloid news about Flotus too. Please give us a break!
4
Well, since we are being honest with each other, my retirement account gained more than 25% last year....more than any previous president in the last few decades . So, are we in it for the money or is it worth it for both parties to destroy our republic ?
6
Actually the stock market increased by a larger percentage in Obama's first year in office.
17
Since we are being honest with each other.
6
Will Mrs Trump shove her revulsion aside yet again and appear at the State of the Union speech? I predict yes. I missed the picture of Melania smiling widely with a handsome Marine, in fact, I have never seen a picture of her smiling and the only time I ever observed Trump laugh was when Hillary thanked him for offering to provide her a limo to the Al Smith dinner two years ago, punch line.......it was a hearse. Funny and much enjoyed by Donald.
2
I'd like to know who much Melania's little temper tantrum cost the American taxpayer.
19
Worry about the golfing and the looting of the treasury. I don’t begrudge the First Lady a trip in the plane. When democrats are back, the first gentleman can ride too.
2
Melania knew exactly what she was signing up for when they got married.
18
She is not a victim.
26
Keep looking, America, and blame the mirror because it's so badly cracked.
Eventually the mirror needs to be trashed, but you must resign yourself to a few years of horror!
AG
Calgary, Canada
11
I wonder what kind of advance Mrs. Trump could get for her book.
6
In any divorce/separation financial arrangements you can bet that Failure Trump would include a “non-disclosure” clause. Hopefully, Melania is better at deal negotiation than Failure Trump.
1
She can probably get whatever she wants. And she can then use it for her retirement portfolio because she probably isn't getting a dime if she divorces Don. She may not even get Barron (which might be why she stays.)
3
Thank you for this wickedly amusing column, Maureen Dowd!
4
Only during Trump's era we can be talking about Melania Trump not being an embarrassment. Really? Think about it
15
"...while the kid from Queens was abroad trying to impress the soul-sucking global elites he got elected railing against, pathetically bragging that he had “a crowd like they’ve never had before in Davos,” Melania made a solo visit to the Holocaust Museum here for Holocaust Remembrance Day."
Perhaps says more about the heart of this fiasco we live in, than all the words and speculation about Russian money, money laundering, Russian influence, Russian interference, and all the scrambling of rats to fend off the light on those dark corners of our current experience. The beating heart of it all is in the reality of the contrast between this reality and what people are so desperate to believe. Desperate beliefs seldom recognize desperate realities.
Washington went from functioning in a swamp, now flounders in a cesspool. In a swamp, an area of low-lying water as a bog or marsh, where all forms of life can function. A cesspool where everything eventually ides resulting in disease.
And so we are now in a diseased democracy, void of the values a democracy requires to survive. The manager in charge of cesspool operations sits in the Oval office. Forget Hillary, Barry and other side issues and focus on the spread of disease emanating from the White House.
15
Thank you for leaving out any reference or comparison to Michelle Obama in this FLOTUS fluff piece.
How to did we go from Class to Crass? what an understatement...
7
Melania wearing 6-inch stiletto heels and skin tight black pants for the photo-op as she boards a plane for Hurricane Harvey ravaged Houston.......all you need to know.
She may be just as clueless as Donald.
30
Time Melania divorces the bum she married. And stand up for her dignity, her son and all the women he has abused.
13
For Trump and the Slovenian Sphinx, it appears there will be many Stormy Daniels days ahead. Batten down the hatches, gang, we're all in for a rough ride into the Sea of Despair.
Mo, you never fail to get in your digs on Hillary, but you and a host of other Hillary critics still fail to provide a logical answer to Hillary's "losing" since she received more votes than any other Dem except Barack in '08. You fail to mention Gore got more votes than Dubya' in '00. Again, something about the Electoral College and the Supreme Court selecting the former in the Bush v. Gore battle? In that case you and other pundits blamed Gore for not utilizing old Slick Willy more in the campaign. Gore calculated incorrectly that B. J. Clinton was persona non grata. Compare today, a Perfect Stormy Daniels brewing on the horizon before the election, with William Jefferson's exploits prior to and during his presidency and I wouldn't be surprised if Bill C. were not a candidate for sainthood.
Times sure have changed. Crass has long ago replaced class, Mo. The difference we didn't know about philandering men like JFK and the Post's Ben Bradlee. Those were secrets the Press kept. Which brings me back to Hillary. Another perfect storm formed, of anger, fear, prejudice, misogyny, which propelled a know-nothing sexual predator buffoon into the presidency. We have met the enemy, Mo, it is US, the American electorate. We are the cause of our own debacle.
DD
Manhattan
35
What this should teach all of us is that our government needs a major overhaul. Trump should never have won the 2016 election. But since we do not have a one person-one vote system, we let the Electoral College screw up the works. Add to this the Russian interference and a host of other negative political events as well as problems with Hillary, we lost to the worst sub-human alive who is raping our country while increasing his wealth. There is no simple answer to what caused this devolution, but rather a constellation of the above factors that are still playing out now. We need to do better in 2018, where at least it is one person-one vote despite the GOP gerrymandering efforts to deny voter's rights.
19
And passively we accept the unacceptable.
The election was fouled, tainted and void of any semblance of fairness.
If we weren’t so addled by social media we would insist on a REVOTE.
6
For a woman who can't finish a sentence, Melania somehow acquires rhetorical and expressive depth here that she simply does not possess. She puts her foot in her mouth every time she opens it. This is why, per Vanity Fair, Trump was pleased that she "only speaks when spoken to."
Having all the money in the world, she never bothered to become good at English, to take up a charitable cause before this year, and now her charitable cause is laughingly embarrassing.
43
FYI, the tweet Dowd mentions at the top of her piece should be attributed to @AndyOstroy: Political/Pop Culture Analyst. Writer/blogger. Producer. Blocked by Donald, Don Jr, Ivanka, Eric. http://ostroyreport.com
2
Melania, leave this manchild ASAP. Get a real life
8
This isn't about the Donald and Melania. It's about "how did we drop so far and so fast from class to crass?" The genius of this piece is that it says what the majority of Americans feel about the larger context, corrosion and immorality in the presidency and other parts of our society. The tragedy is that this president lacks the moral authority to lead us out of the swamp.
10
One of your best, most scathing, columns, Maureen! Bravo!
8
Melania knew what she was getting when she hooked up with Trump. She just never imagined he become President and she would live life in a bubble. Too bad it turned out this way for all of us, but don't shed any tears for the FLOTUS.
17
I emphasize Melania but she knew what she was getting and still signed on with one one of the worse human beings imaginable.The only way she can redeem herself is to divorce the creep and expose everything she knows so that all of these so called disclaimers will know him for what he is.
Thanks Maureen! Good article.
9
"From class to crass" sums up the Trump presidency. While one can feel sorry for Melania even though she made a Faustian bargain -- she probably didn't figure it would include being FLOTUS -- one can also feel sorry for Hillary Clinton. Leave the poor woman alone!
16
By Michael Wolf’s assessment, Trump didn’t expect to win and didn’t want to win. His accounts were of Melania horrified and in tears as it became clearer that Trump would win. She made her bed however, and one could say, now she can lie in it, but they have separate bedrooms at least.
8
Why? She and her DNC cronies gave us trump. Leave her alone? Anytime she sticks her head in politics again: attack her with her own history of power over principle.
3
Brilliant column, Maureen! You've read my mind! I can hardly look at this guy (sorry, President just doesn't seem to fit), without feeling nauseous and repulsed...
14
Under My Thumb
Honestly, I think HRC's response to harassment in the office is s good one: pay witheld, counseling and training to recover the man from the beast, new job for the victim. It's not the best approach for every beastly man, but it's a legitimate way to handle the situation.
28
Pay for the counseling maybe but he should have been fired.
2
Good article, but I am not on board with the after-the-fact claim that there were better candidates than Hillary, who actually won the popular vote. Dems need to stop fighting with themselves if they are going to steer the ship of state away from the shoals.
24
The role of First Lady does not require Melania to lift a finger or create for her own agenda. If she wants to stand next to her awful husband, seething in her $3000 outfit, that's her choice. However, the very least she can do is not expense her unhappy life to the American people, who have no choice in her representing us as First Lady. I don't care if she's happy or not -- she knew what she was getting when she married Donald -- but I do care that she spends our money to continue with the lifestyle she has chosen, while giving NOTHING back.
41
Thank you, MamaBear, for pointing out that her life style is paid for by the public.
Yes, she was not elected and this was not her choice, perhaps. Still a basic act of character is to acknowledge the reality of the situation and contribute to the "great country" she claimed to enjoy this past year.
6
On one hand I feel sorry for Melania, on the other hand I don't feel sorry for Melania. She is Trump's third wife, that "should have been a major decision" when she decided to marry him. I would not be surprised if their marriage does not last past his four years in Office, even if it does I doubt she would want to go through another four years of being married to him as (most) of the nation has had enough of him also.
15
Many, many commenters here are upset by Dowd’s comments re Clinton, but Dowd is right; only Clinton was a bad enough candidate to saddle us with the otherwise unelectable Trump. We can complain about the electoral college all we like, but everyone knew that that was a factor going in and that a winning campaign needed to address enough constituencies to get those numbers; well, everyone knew except Clinton and her advisers, that is.
5
87,000 people in Michigan left the box for "President" blank in 2016, but voted for down ballot candidates......or so the voting machines claim..... Was Hillary supposed to predict this too?
3
trump's wife gets whatever she deserves. She supported him in his birther comments. She agrees with his policies or she would speak out. I remember Betty Ford disagreeing with President Ford and speaking out publicly. trump's wife is no Betty Ford. By the way, how long did it take her to become an American citizen?
24
I thought this article was interesting and left me thinking that Melania, someone coming from a possibly difficult background into what could only be any woman's worst nightmare-i.e. being married to Donald Trump and while he has hit a new low on arguably the most prominent stage on earth-that Melania is a woman with feelings and limited options, and one who actually knows quite a lot about Donald and Russians. We don't need to drag her through the mud because she doesn't fit the happy first wife stereotype. I say let the poor woman alone and let her come to her own "me too" moment.
5
While the Donald is out of town, she ought to file for dissolution of marriage and get a restraining order locking him out of the family home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
17
Did she sign a prenup?
1
It’s been a while since I’ve fully agreed with Mo, but 100% with her here. I wonder if the nation can wait till after this year’s election to oust this man.
Trump is a white supremist. Once everyone realizes this our breaking democracy will be easier to rebuild.
4
"blender with the top off" is perfect—I will be using that.
In other news: Maureen Dowd did her part to help get Trump elected; let's be real.
26
"Blender with the top off ..." Perfect.
4
You have convinced me! I am cancelling my subscription.
5
"He’s an embarrassing husband and an embarrassing president and an embarrassing leader of the free world".
An excellent summary by Ms. Dowd.
However, I think it's worth saying that it's absurd for anyone to even hint that Hillary as President would be, or could be, even remotely as bad as the current presidential imposter. Say what one will about Hillary, but Trump is a unique and unchallenged failure by whatever criteria one chooses. That he's is an "embarrassment" is surely correct, but only touches the surface. And that's not a partisan view; it's an objective assessment.
14
In all sincerity, I don't think any of "The Rat Pack", would have anything to do with Donald Trump, the current, President of The United States!
11
But he never puts her in the spotlight which is interesting in and of itself. He never refers to her or his youngest son. It's as if they don't exist once they are out of sight. While Obama didn't dwell on his family we did know that he was a proud father of two girls for whom he had high expectations and husband to a woman who was his match in ambition and intelligence. Then again, perhaps Obama appreciated his family more than Trump appreciates people, period.
36
This is a sad story, but pulling pieces of its telling out of the air from all over the map does not make for real news. If Melania is discomfited she can do something about it; if not, then who cares. She obviously enjoys the perks of being FLOTUS and does not seem ready to give that up, even with a possibly grand settlement for her.
19
It's looks like Comedy Central's President show is dead but it had one line that still keeps me laughing. The show opened with Trump on the phone saying, 'I'm really sorry and I know what you are going through but you knew what you were in for when you signed up. Good night, Melania.'
16
Perhaps his check bounced.
12
Given what we have learned from Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury and other "insider" essays on the "traumatic surprise" of Trump winning the electoral vote I can see where Melania might feel a little ovuerkhvelmd ( overwhelmed). Combined with almost daily revelations of her husbands past acts, current boorish behavior, self aggrandizing comments, as well as his routine stupidity and ignorance she been compelled, as any normal human being would, to recede to the back wall of his ever present stage. (With her shoulders pressed firmly against it). We don't know what goes on behind the closed doors of their "marriage, what they talk about about, how they relate to each other and if there is any real trust, or emotional intimacy where she feels safe sharing her feelings and concerns with her husband. I doubt it. He's a pig. Their marriage, to him, was an emotionless transaction where he "won" the prettiest woman on the catwalk. He closed the deal and moved on. I'm sure being married to Trump requires, for Melania, a daily routine of avoidance, girding her loins, ignoring him, taking care of herself, and her son and waiting for it all to be over.
24
She knew all the horrible things about him before she married him. It was obviously all about the money.
3
Are we STILL talking about Hillary Clinton?
If you must fantasize that Melania is somehow more than she appears to be, that’s fine. But PLEASE, let’s move on from 2016.
36
A brilliant and incisive essay on our self-inflicted decay. As Ms. Dowd's scimitar cut into the rank hypocrisy of today's silly Christian religious figures and the passivity of the faithful in toleration of massive tax reduction for the kleptocrats, I am reminded of Victor Hugo, who championed real humanitarians. “There is in every village a torch—the teachers: and an extinguisher—the clergyman.”
19
I used to enjoy your articles but now I think I need to take a shower and then maybe do something pleasant...
24
I'll take Hillary over Joe and Bernie combined in a hear beat!
If you need reasons - well what can I say...
The suggestion that Hillary be put out to pasture while Bernie and Joe get a free card, having hung around for decades themselves is simply outrageous.
39
Let’s not make Melania out to be anymore than what she is, a savvy ex model that knew exactly who and what she was getting in the marital bargain. All this hand wringing over her horrible and untenable position she is in is completely her own doing. Yes, she may pout a bit in public to show she has some backbone but she keeps her mouth shut and enjoys the riches she bargained for.
49
Amen. Trump wanted eye candy and Melania wanted a rich guy. That's the deal.
11
You never miss a chance to comment nastily (and with envy, I suspect) on Hillary. Leave her be. Keep to your subject and talk about Trump.
53
Huh? This column is all over the place. We don't know why Melania skipped Davos and probably never will. We can speculate all we want about what she thinks, and dissecting her behavior as a reaction to her husband's racism and crudeness is probably an exercise in futility.
23
Bla bla bla bla....Ms. Dowd-- and all her fellow columnists-- love to focus all of their scorn and blame on HRC and the Democratic party for allowing this nation to sink to its current nadir. Please, give it a rest already, and be HONEST for once.
The Republicans have been blasting their message of hate, greed, racism, homophobia, intolerance, religious persecution, environmental destruction and anti-science for the last 40 years!!!!!! The only thing standing in their way-- for good or for bad-- has been the Democratic party. Yes the Democratic party has MANY faults and weaknesses, and they are far from perfect or effective sometimes, but they are our only hope for fairness and logic. The ONLY reasons our government and our nation are being held hostage by these vicious cretins: The Electoral College and Gerrymandering. Once these incredibly unfair and dangerous obstacles are eliminated, and a citizen's vote is not destroyed by these political abominations, then we will see a truly representative government.
At the moment, Republican senators and congressmen will do absolutely nothing to address the madness, and the misinformed, uneducated, cynical masses that supported this beast of a president will do everything-- ignore, hide, remain silent, obfuscate, deny, blame other groups, etc-- to save face.
Hey, Ms. Dowd, instead of singing to the choir of those that can see the obvious, maybe you can offer some concrete plans on how to rescue our captive nation.
53
I regret that I only have one "recommend" for this post. I was raised by Republicans. The tragedy of the post-Nixon Republican party has been heartbreaking, thoroughly demoralizing, psychologically devastating over the space of the past 60 years. I have lost my religion. I have lost my faith in my fellow citizens. I wish I could migrate from the country of my birth, but the American War Monger party has despoiled the whole world. There is literally nowhere to turn.
9
So Hillary lost the election, or rather the Electoral vote, as a "flawed" candidate.
When the country would now be enjoying proposed legislation for federally funded community colleges, a path to building meaningful renewable energy, progress on international agreements rather than their destruction, DACA protection with pathways to citizenship, fair tax reform without billionaires reaping the benefits, real help to Puerto Rico, and on and on and on...
if Hillary were in the White House.
47
Tell that to the GOP led Congress if Hillary was elected president.
Actually, we're talking about most of that now.
In response to Ms. Dowd, I'd kind of mention that Rapunzel is very much not Woman Woman. And while one may sympathize with this woman's plight--assuming that there is one, and ths isn't just another Rorschach test--deploying arguments that got developed to account for poor and working and black women's true work is relly a bit rich.
And I mean, "rich."
Oh, and in response to the types who like their Stepford Wives imported and never pass up a chance to screech at Hillary Clnton for being--what was that phrase? "Crass and grasping?"--I'd kind of want to point out that this is a lingerie model who worked illegally in this country, bagged herself a rich guy, and has been known to enjoy showcasing a particular type of weathy woman's taste for the ol' Marie Antoinette.
Melania Trump did not work her way up from a refugee camp, or start knocking on doors to help organize in 1964, or write great books, or fight the importantion of thalidomide, or any such thing.
And she's darn sure never risked speaking up honestly, on the topic of anything other than which heels to wear, in any context whatsoever.
41
The FDA refused, for good reason, to approve thalidomide. No one had to "fight the importation of thalidomide". Nor would it have been possible to do so, if the FDA had approved it.
2
It is so obvious Melania married for the money but how could she have reproduced a fledgling of her husband. I am sure he is teaching him the perfection of men over women and that women it is only in the looks like his mom. Trump has bashed everyone in the world and continues to do so and yet his followers keep following do the women in that group ever stand up to something the man says or are they all the women that can say nothing to their husbands. I wonder if Melania was a mail order bride and if we have that qualification for men as president why is it not so for flotus. She never smiles but walks behind him and never speaks. She doesn't smile unless she is by a handsome young man. Wouldn't you be smiling sitting by Prime Minister Trudeau and Prince Harry....... omg I would be smiling from ear to ear. I think most women would. Anyway I think this poor misguided woman who only wanted the money and the prestige of the wealth has now found herself with the biggest boldest pig of a man and in a place she can't feel comfort or happiness. She is probably hoping he will kick off and she will be free of him and have all his money. She shows signs of verbal abuse by the way she walks behind him and never speaks oh isn't that what trump said about the mother and wife of the man who was a gold star family. "Is she afraid to talk the way she stands behind him and says nothing??" He needs to look in the mirror but he would only see what he thinks he is perfect.
12
Great article but can we please stop analyzing Melania Trump and her "sorrows?" She knew what she signed on for and seems an empty shell of a woman. Her dead eyes kind of say it all. Her lack of engagement on behalf of the American people is insulting, especially as she accepts taxpayer largesse as her due without offering anything in exchange. The ultimate in entitled behavior.
How much did her private flight to Florida cost us? If Trump is in Switzerland, why couldn't she just hole up in the White House for the weekend? And as long as she seems comfortable in her role as mannequin, why can't she at least wear American designers? MAGA indeed.
66
Ms Melania maybe an ice Princess. The right fist in the picture says it all. Her demeanor in every photo-op is that of an angry, frustrated woman, one who cannot endure her spouse's very presence and vulgarity. Some may say she made her own bed for money. But she is paying a steep price now and so are the tax-payers. She may have married Trump for an American passport. But this marriage will only last for the next three years. I bet Trump is blackmailing her for something in her past, present or future to avoid a divorce in Office. But three years from now she will be the ex-wife just like Ivana and Marla. She is human and therefore can tolerate only so
much.
20
She could have married anyone for an American passport. She married him for his money.
10
I'm surprised NYT published this. I know the First Lady is a public figure, but NYT just published an article that easily could have appeared on the TMZ website. The NYT is one of the few institutions I still have faith in, although it has, maybe out of necessity, become exceedingly biased. Trump deserves it, but I'm not sure we do. However, when the op ed pieces start interpreting marriages based on outfits, tweets and vacations, I'm out. I know the abomination in the White House is the ultimate cause, but two wrongs don't make a right. Let's try to remain above this for our sake, not the Donald's or Melania's.
17
Billy Bob--I get your point but this is an editorial rather than a news article. It's Maureen Dowd's expression of her own opinion. That's one difference between reading the NY Times in print versus online. In print this piece is tucked into the middle of the paper, an op-ed--opposite the editorial page. Online it's in the top right corner of the home page. That makes the distinction between news articles and opinion pieces: editorials and op-eds (official positions of the news paper and supplementary positions by house of visiting columnists) a lot less clear.
5
First, I love Cicero. Second, I understand your point and knew it before I commented. But .... I can't imagine the NYT has no say over what appears in op-ed pieces. It must have some influence, such as, "This is not worthy." The point I like is about the online experience and the fact that this piece is so prominent online. Maybe that is the point I should be making: eliminate the most popular section. Or, maybe, as an adult, I should self-edit. In any case, this article depressed me as an article in the NYT and that is the point I wanted to make.
2
Wonderful words and thoughts, your OP-ED makes me appreciate and empathize with Mrs. Trump. I like this First Lady the more I read about her.
My hope is she will give her son a foundation of morality and compassion of which her husband is completely void. There is no more important job for her to embrace.
6
Oh please, for all the sympathy we may have for Melania, let's not bestow her with emotional and political depths of character she does not possess. Melania's love for her son is her most redeeming quality. But otherwise, she seems pretty shallow. At this moment, she may be looking in one of those hi-magnification cosmetic mirrors, examining her face for the wrinkles that come with age. Her stay in the White House has not been good for her; she looks older and unhappy.
36
Stop making Melania Trump be more than she is. She was a second rate model who married a wealthy man. She supported his "birther" platform. She has done nothing as FLOTUS for the public good, except for a handful of visits to schools and hospitals. Her decision to remain in NY, although understandable, cost the taxpayers millions of dollars. She sued newspapers for slander. I have no sympathy--she made her own bed.
59
100%.
6
Ms. Dowd's "Apologia for a Slovenian gold-digger" doesn't nearly ring as true as it attempts to do. For all her faults, Hilary Clinton would have worked hard and accomplished many good things for the workers and the poor of this country, at the same time keeping the rich at bay. Hilary is intelligent, experienced and yes, compassionate in a way #45 and his concubine could never be. I'd take Clintonian triangulation any day over the horrible nightmare we now have with a GOP-controlled usurer congress and an executive run by a recognizably-diagnosed berserker.
51
Hill's first foray as Candidate Clinton was to fly to Omaha to schmooze with Billionaire Buffet at $150,000/plate. Thken it was off to SilVal, the Holyweed Hills, the Hamptons, the Street and the Vineyard. Family photos for a $10,000 donation. She never did acknowledge the "workers and poor of this country", unless you call "a basket of deplorables" a battle cry for decency and inclusion.
Perhaps you are correct in your comment, but at least Clinton’s policies and Sanders influence ,if she had succeeded would have benefited “ the basket of deplorables “ more so than what they will receive from Failure Trump’s “policies” and this GOP Tax Bill.
9
The subject is an immigrant turned citizen by marriage. trumps first wife was also an immigrant. trumps father married an immigrant. trump is barely first generation as are most of his offspring.
Maureen now extols the virtues of an immigrant whose moral compass surpasses that of the so-called President. Too bad she had to include a redux of Benghazi.
15
Many Americans don’t care how Melania feels. We are not big stock investors and we’re not invited to the party they are having right now. We’re mainly anticipating and worried about a crash and how we will fare. Melania will be fine.
43
Exactly. We all know a crash will occur. And even though we may have little or nothing in the market, we all know the crash will adversely affect us. Start putting money in your mattresses now....
4
This is what happens when you don't vote. Who was it that said something to the effect..."........when good men do nothing." Now we can add women to the phrase. November seems far away, but it will be here quick as a wink.
11
Wish Dowd had expressed such views in 2016 when it mattered rather than kniving the Clintons at every opportunity. Dowd owns a part of the Trump Presidency and its resulting flaws.
51
Great reporting from you Ms. Dowd, I'm still mesmerized of how our pride and esteem has been brought down to a level that's still free-falling with no end in sight and yet with this chapter in our history, I hope it will bring renewed political arguments for amending the Congressional "TERM LIMITS" clause of our constitution, for allowing a once-only election to the House or Senate after this democratically elected almost Fake President that sides with Fox and invites Tass (Russian news agency) to an oval office meeting was created by them.......IT'S TIME TO CLEAN HOUSE AND SENATE WITH PROGRESSIVE LAWS NOT ANTIQUATED.....
2
Beautifully wielded writing scalpel; nicely done Maureen.
2
"Barack Obama was always calling to our better angels." If only Maureen could have acknowledged this when we had a President with whom we could be proud. Too little, too late, Maureen.
47
GREAT ASSESSMENT AND WONDERFUL ELOQUENCE How much is Melania being paid for not filing for divorce while in The White House??
4
Please don’t make Melania into a feminist heroine. She is only parsing her prenup (However her protection of Barron is admirable). And you are correct in condemning Clinton’s sheltering of an abuser. She was only delaying the sanctions of the fundies who are quick to declare a “war on Christianity.”
5
We all know that Melania married Trump for money and social status. Although she did not anticipate becoming First Lady of the US she certainly anticipated a life of luxury and leisure. What she didn't anticipate was that the Trump marriage dirty laundry would be hung out to dry for the world to see.
If she chooses to sulk and slink away so be it. If she was a better person she would do what Eleanor Roosevelt or Princess Diana did and use her status to make lives better for others. Don't hold your breath waiting for her to rise above her husband's boorishness and become her own person. After all she did marry him.
23
Think you nailed it on so many fronts.
2
I'm repulsed by these recent attempts to cast Melania as a victim or, even better, a stealth resister. Does anyone seriously believe she's a hostage or, even better, a mastermind who's quietly signalling her support for and stand with women. To me, she's simply a woman who leveraged her looks for wealth and a life of leisure. So she didn't get quite what she bargained for. But that's Faust.
35
"Institutions that gave America its identity as a smart, brave, generous, fair country — the presidency, Congress, sports, faith, Hollywood, big business — seem corroded and immoral."
Yes please take a look in the mirror. "Sports, faith, Hollywood, big business...." FYI those "institutions" were never seen as American assets that are "smart, brave, generous and fair", by those of us who live practically everywhere else.
7
Maybe Baron's school in NYC was better than the one he's attending in the DC area. If that's the case Melania and Baron should spend the next school year in NYC.
3
I see the story of Red Ant, here. He bought into the grub test, and sold out his band for a sure thing. He got so fat, he gave away their game. Gravy train in the coffee station.
For those of us who remember the Rat Pack they would never allow a Donald Trump in their midst. The Rat Pack loved people, the loved life, they loved laughter and they didn't relish cruelty, racism and division.
17
While rereading Ms. Dowd's column I am perplexed, more so upon reading the comments. It would seem that, yes, we for the most part are witnessing from the demeanor and facial expressions of Melania that she seems to be an unhappy woman and perhaps is very concerned for her son Bannon. Can we blame her? She is married to a man whose primary love is for himself. I have no doubt that she in many forms is exploited and used like almost everyone else in Trump's orbit.
But Ms Dowd needs to get on with her life and join most thinking Americans who find her constant impugning of Hillary Clinton offensive. It is not okay to continue what I consider cruelty to this woman. And Ms Dowd is being mean for lack of a better word. I ask this otherwise fine writer to stay focused on our real problem and danger to our democracy...Donald Trump.
25
D.C. under Trump has become a Circus Maximus, with the maximum number of clowns possible pontificating their self importance in one endless cacophony. Melania would become a major American folk hero should she jettison this faux president in midstream. It may be the only chance for the downcast Barron Trump to escape the poisonous atmosphere emanating from his father and grow up to be a true prince. Shakespeare made a living creating imaginary families such as the one we are doomed to call our First Family.
8
From "class to crass." sums it up perfectly. "Elevating a corporate tax cut over fundamental values is not going to cut it." also is a an apt and bleak description of the cowardly GOP Congress now in control of America's downward spiral .
8
Why should any of us care a whit about Melania one way or the other? All she is or has ever been is a very pretty face who sought and married a rich guy to support her. There are plenty of pretty faces out there who have made their own way and made their own money - think Christie Brinkley, Cindy Crawford, and others. I have no sympathy for her whatever. I actually could care less about her.
15
Isn't it ironic that Melania is an immigrant with no technical skills deemed worthy by such as Stephen Miller and John Kelly? One might even make the case that her citizenship resulted from 'chain migration!'
She gives every indication that she is a good person who wants to do good things. But, Melania, beware! Wife #4 is waiting in the wings. Look out for Hope Hicks!
14
Your column, Maureen, compels me to say that I believe Trump's certain downfall will come for reasons that are unknown to us now.
Collusion with Russia? Clearly, but conservatives won't accept the truth of it.
Infidelity? Sure, but who doesn't?
Fiduciary malfeasance? see above.
No, Trump's failure will come for reasons that are so perverse, so unAmerican, so repellent that even godfearing Christians (including Congressional enablers) will draw back in shame.
You can be sure the Vegas/DeepState network has already placed odds (unrelated to the Dow, alas.)
10
Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, more authentic personae? Give it a rest Dowd...while I do think very highly of Joe Biden, authentic persona for me does not equal the candidates who yell the loudest, talk the longest and rile up the crowds. The most authentic people I know are the ones that listen to other people, spend hours upon hours collecting the research, finding out the facts, and actually getting the hard work done. Those are my people, and I'm beyond sick and tired of hearing that HRC couldn't get the votes because she's "flawed". BTW, she DID GET THE VOTES - 3.5 million for the popular win....
20
Obviously, Milania is a trophy wife, so I have ignored her and any articles written about her. I am not interested in the opinions or actions of a women who would marry an old man, particularly this old man, for his money.
However, I am glad I made an exception and read this article. If she truly has a conscience and some self-respect and concern for the moral lessons she's teaching her son, she should divorce Donald Trump. She should initiate the process right now.
8
You can sell your soul for wealth, or to look really good no matter what pair of jeans you're wearing. It's your soul, do what you want. But when you wants to nullify the agreement with the devil, you got to pay the price or the costs..
8
« Blender with the top off. »
This presidency is truly a fall from grace.
But Dowd confuses herself, and her readers, when she diverts to Hillary. Hillary failed because Third Way neoliberalism failed, and she was it’s last living embodiment.
If there’s a change in 2018, it will be to return the top to the blender. And if there’s a change in 2020, it will be to unplug it. Well, for those of us who were old enough (just one year ago) to remember the sound of peace and quiet.
12
I love your metaphor!
Another good one would be an exploded pressure cooker!
1
Trump has succeeded, absolutely, in eroding any notion of decency in American politics. He could move Stormy Daniels into the White House as First Lady and no one would bat an eye.
32
This column poignantly nails the utterly depressing state we find ourselves in
8
Maureen never misses a chance to trash Hillary even in a column supposedly about Melania Trump. By the way Hillary won the primaries, state by state. No one forced me to vote for her. Enough Democratic voters felt Hillary’s experience and moderate political positions were preferable to Sander’s extremely liberal point of view and that Hillary would play better in the general election. Despite her loss I still think that. And the continuing excoriation of the Democrats for supporting a Democrat over an Independent is ridiculous. They did what their supporters would expect them to do.
39
Remember....half the country voted for Trump and they're not going away.
So, get ready for Act Two in 2020. Whether it's Trump, Pence or some other repulsive candidate, the Republicans are united in their hatred of the Democrats and have a message that resonates. The Dems continue to flounder and flounder and flounder, as always.
6
Stormy vs. Slovenian Sphinx, sounds like a WWF wrestling match sponsored by the new Republican party and Linda McMahon at one of Steve Wynn's hotels and casinos. This is the new look of the Republican party- Trent Franks, Pat Meehan, Brent Farenthold, Tim Murphy, and, of course, the coarsest of all, -Potus ,himself. This does not even factor in the conspiracy wing of the New GOP- Trent Gowdy, Mattie Gaetz, Devin Nunes, Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan.
Is it any wonder than that our democratic institutions and norms are being shattered on an hourly basis when these are the leaders of the Republican version of the Kremlin ? Tax Cuts for the wealthiest 1% and corrosive and divisive policies regarding women, immigrants and our right to vote is the "values " platform of the Trumpian encrusted GOP. And Ms. Dowd is 100% correct that is not going to cut it.
11
Great column.
But when do we get to climb out of this ditch we are in?
Or does it get worse, before it gets better?
5
Okay let’s once again blame Hillary and Democrats for what Donald does or does not do. Isn’t that what he also does every time he speaks or tweets - bring her into every conversation? For once, can’t we just focus on him, his words, his actions and those who are responsible- his enablers and those who actually voted for him.
25
Time for Trump and his cronies, (Pence, Ryan, etc.) to step down and get out of the way. It is time for the Republicans to push this forward and begin to work with the Democrats to make America great again or at least whole, otherwise we are going down the drain.
3
I was very wary of Melania Trump due to her background and photos that appeared on the internet. My wife was more forgiving. She was right. What we have seen is an elegant lady with a dignity that towers above her husband and the crass crowd he seems to enjoy.
How the marriage ends, I do not know, but a good attorney can normally shred even the best "prenup". No attorney here, but it seems that "mental cruelty" might be the way to go.
How Trump ends up is anyone's guess right now, but it won't be good for this country.
4
Seems one never knows who they marry. Maybe Donald the younger was less of an embarrassment and low-life then than he turned out to be in real life.
Many have fallen for con men and abusers and later realized the true nature of the relationship.
The dynamics of relationships are complicated and never more so than with women who choose to stay married to these men.
Maybe Melania is doing her part for the resistance movement in the only way she can.
1
How could Melania be surprised?
The story of Trump's second marriage to Marla Maples was a preview. He had four year well crafted prenuptual agreement, that he thrust upon her days before the planned marriage. He terminated it only weeks before there was an escalation clause. It could have been considered a lease for concubinage, which would be an offense on the sanctity of marriage, if his overt behavior had not already done the job.
The Art of the Deal!
11
This is one of your best pieces.
2
"How did we drop so far and so fast from class to crass?"
Some wanted Mr. Trump. Others would never vote for Hillary.
I really think we proved that lies do work.
8
I think comments and Trump's marriage should be off limits. We should be focusing on Trump's policies more than the state of his marriage.
6
You give her too much credit. This didn't work out quite as she originally expected. She should move on. Now.
6
It's quite evident Republican politicians are engaged in a quid pro quo with 4. We'll look the other way at your Tweets and lies if you sign on to our draconian legislative agenda, which they are clearly enacting on all fronts: social, economic, and environmental. Not a stellar moment in time for America.
7
One of your best, Ms. Dowd! You have managed to capture, in one brief column, much of what causes me to, at times, feel like the reality I have known for 60 years has been usurped by a weird dream from which I can't seem to awake.
I keep rereading my library of history books trying to find some analogy for our current situation. I hope America is just suffering from temporary insanity and by 2019 a true leader will emerge (from any party) to help us climb out of this dark pit into which we fallen.
9
. . . Nero fiddling while Rome burns comes to mind . . .
1
Melania Trump is a wonderful First Lady and has a unique and refreshing personality. She appears to be a quiet woman who does not seek the limelight. She is quite an asset to President Trump and her quiet demeanor is a nice contrast to his outspoken manner. They compliment each other and I do believe she still loves her husband. I also think she is pleased with her role as First Lady. This is a very important role and she is serving our country admirably. Remember she married Donald Trump and I am sure she had many suitors in which she could have married. She chose him.
She is the polar opposite to the outspoken Michelle Obama who some found to be a bit overpowering. Who can forget the comment she made while on the campaign trial for her husband when she said that "for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country." Here is a woman who had been given more opportunities then most Americans. She was a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Universities those colleges that most can only dream about attending. She worked at a top law firm and had a successful career. Again, many women can only wish to have such a budding career. She was an ingrate and was not liked by all Americans. She did not represent me as a woman and I am not alone in my views. The liberal media treated her husband and herself with kid gloves and never wrote the defaming and critical articles that they have been doing with the Trump family. They loved the Obamas and still do.
4
Michelle wasn't "given" Harvard and Princeton, or her career. She worked hard for them and earned them.
21
Why is it that any discussion about the current administration by more ”conservative” people seems to always get turned into a commentary in Obama?
10
Clearly, you know nothing of Mrs. Obama's upbringing in the inner city, as a descendant of slaves, with all the odds against her.
8
I find this column so ironic because the Democrats loss in 2016 was partly due to journalists like Maureen Dowd who relentlessly tore down the Democratic candidate, a woman with stellar qualifications. Dowd says Obama always spoke to our "better angels" but she relentlessly tore him down too. I am all for calling out people who do wrong, but constant vindictive screaming about the acts of people with good intentions who make the best choices they can given the circumstances because they aren't EXACTLY what you think is right at the moment ends up being counterproductive, in the extreme. We see that now that we have ended up with Trump, one of the most corrupt politicians the US has ever seen.
42
My sincere, fondest wish for Melania: That she has PLENTY of legitimate, paid-up life insurance on Him. And with Companies NOT afflicted with any Trump Brand. There's no such thing as too much, Dear. Best Wishes.
4
And yes, I MEANT afflicted.
,Fantastic op-Ed, thanks Ms.Dowd. I hope it is like ancient Roman game where end game is in sight. Sooner the end, better for the USA and better for the world. Melania can not and will not go anywhere leaving this golden goose. I feel her pain. We are also in pain. We have this headache for last one year. The Republican Congressional leadership is 100 percent behind this clownish leader for their own interest and they have also less than 11 percent approval. But the evangelical leaders are supporting Trump's extramarital activities. These evangelicals love money and power more than God, Jesus and bible. His voters will vote for him even he shoot someone or rape scene woman on the 5th avenue. Running blender with top off is really scary. May God help us.
3
Hillary Clinton "a flawed feminist icon who was stunted in her ability to criticize her rival for his retrogressive treatment of women since she had enabled her husband in his retrogressive treatment of women"?
I suppose one could see it that way. The more generous interpretation is a woman who did stand by her man (yes, Tammy-Wynette-style) and kept her family together.
Say one thing for Bill Clinton: he brought home his paycheck, unlike the legions of Republicans who left multiple wives for roadkill in their quest for eternal youth. Trump, Gingrich, Gramm, McConnell, McCain, Wilson, Schwarzenegger, Sanford, Giuliani, Barr, to name a few. Had Bill Clinton divorced Mrs. Clinton, married Lewinsky, and switched parties, all would have been forgiven.
"When we look in the mirror and try to figure out who we are now, elevating a corporate tax cut over our fundamental values is not going to cut it." Try to figure it out? Why bother? Anyway, The Bachelor is on tonight.
18
"When we look in the mirror and try to figure out who we are..." Sorry, the sad reality is Trump is holding the mirror and it's not a distortion. We ain't what we thought.
6
Although deserving, Hillary Clinton had too much baggage to become President,in a way though, it may be have been to the greater good. Trump has now exposed the Republican party for what it is, and I, for one, can see no path back to the light unless they jettison the Trump voters.
2
Great story, Maureen, a real keeper. The missing person here is their son, Barron. I recently found a letter that my 34 y/o son made in a grade school project thanking me for playing catch with him. We spent many hours doing it, and I taught him how to throw a curve ball, a reverse slider, and a knuckle ball. He became so good at it, that later I couldn't catch them very well. It's strange that we never see Donald with his son alone, or playing golf with him. It's another data point that shows that Donald would rather be seen with his powerful buddies, than with his own son. I am with you, Melania should figure out a way to break this off and get the custody of her son too. He's not able to be a good father nor a good role model to have custody.
11
Loved "blubbery-necked sea lion." However, I strongly disagree with Sanders or Biden having even a slight chance of beating Trump. I love Biden, but how many times did he run for president? Too many, and he never got far. He's got more cred now, but let's not forget he could have done much better on Anita Hill. Sanders cost Hillary a couple of votes. Never vetted, there is no way he would have won. If either of these old men dare to run, we could very well lose again. You have a thin layer of Clinton hate in most of your pieces. You could have done a lot better for Hillary during the election.
11
Well, Maureen, Joe Biden decided not to run. And WAS Bernie's message "better," or was it just like Trump's in that it promised the moon without any real possibility of delivering it.
It's pretty obvious you don't "like" Hillary Rodham Clinton, but she was vastly better qualified than ANY man who actually DID enter the race. Better qualified to be President, that is. Her campaigning skills are not as high as they needed to be, obviously. But you know what? Maybe that's just because she is too darned honest and won't promise pie in the sky.
Voters really seem to want that pie.
24
Instead of the Stormy outlook, let's be positive. After all, the last womanizing President did pretty good with the economy, balancing the budget and minimizing foreign military entanglements. Here's hoping that the latest version enjoys the same success.
2
The price of empire has finally caught up with us, as it did with Rome.
5
Too often American voters are dining out where the menu offers only two dishes - roadkill and remains. Sanders or Biden? Give me a break. Better than Trump, for sure. But we need a choice of candidates that are truthful, have a vision, are fair-minded, have values and integrity, who have used their power with humility, grace and dignity, and have the necessary knowledge and experience in leadership and success to inspire a nation to a higher morality and standing here and around the world, while helping to set policies that benefit us all, or at least the majority of us all. Is there anyone out there? If so, please, come out of hiding. Democrat, Republican or Independent.
3
Character is no longer a requirement in an American President. Neither is stability or security. So therefore, there are no requirements for a person to win the office. Just get enough votes. The people in our society who would make great Presidents don't want the job. So we will just get more Trumps.
3
“It’s a shattering moment for the country, when many of the institutions that gave America its identity as a smart, brave, generous, fair country — the presidency, Congress, sports, faith, Hollywood, big business — seem corroded and immoral.”
Many now fear, Maureen, that it was all a myth, or, worse yet, a lie. Observing the efforts of the Republican Party “leadership” to white wash Trump’s collusion with the Russians lends credence to the growing perception that big money interests ultimately “trump” sentimental notions of democracy, goodness, and fair play
5
There are many reasons Hillary might have lost, but first among them must be the fact that President Obama failed to sell his agenda to the American public. When it came to healthcare reform, Obama specifically did not appeal to the better angels of our nature. Instead he signaled to Americans with insurance that they shouldn't be concerned about having to make any changes to their healthcare plans, he signaled to healthy people that they would be able to buy the insurance plan that was "right for them" (i.e. paying only as much as they thought they might need), he signaled to health insurance executives that he was going to look out for them, and he signaled to Democrats that he was not going to fight for the more progressive elements of their proposals.
I myself was shocked when I spoke with people I knew who thought single payer was a good idea, but planned to vote for Romney, because Obamacare was a disaster.
The bottom line was that many voters knew Trump was an embarrassment, but they thought Hillary was a disaster. Not because of her compromised feminist credentials, or her awkward public persona, but because, despite thinking Obama was a fine fellow, they believed the country 'was headed in the wrong direction'. What did they mean by that? Did Obama ever ask people why they kept electing people increasingly hostile to his agenda over his eight years in office? Or did he simply take comfort in his own popularity ratings?
3
This was a great article. I am sorry that the behavior of the Child in the White House is making it so difficult for Melania to take on the role of First Lady. Every step she has taken has been to show honor for our country while her husband continues to dishonor. How she will be able to bear this burden for the next three years is beyond me, but there is another child in the White House Barron and I hope he can come out of this chaos unscathed.
14
Still waters run deep, evidently, and so far Ms. Trump has been a class act. I believe that most Clinton diehards are disappointed that she doesn't appear to be crass and grasping; they like that in a woman.
15
She sued a newspaper for a story about her as an escort because it implied that she had been a hooker. Part of the lawsuit was that the story would damage her ability to make money over the term of the presidency, when she would be "the most-photographed woman in the world." She withdrew the lawsuit, but her play for money remains on the record. Nothing classy about that.
29
My guess is, most Clinton diehards feel sorry for her. I do, although I was a Bernie fan.
4
Some of us Clinton diehards want to see our fellow humans do well. I am pleased to see the Melanie Trump is handling the job well; and in addition seems to be handling her marriage about as well as she can.
Diehard-
4
Excellent and powerful essay, Maureen. To your question,
"How did we drop so far and so fast from class to crass?"
simply ask Tony Perkins, Franklin Graham and their Right Wing Christians. Perkins said on CNN this week that Trump had been forgiven for his past sins the moment he entered the presidency, because he has groped no women since then. It's a new brand of theology, a splinter sect from Christianity. Christianity demands that one accept Jesus as savior in order to be forgiven for one's sins; in Right Wing Christian theology, all you have to do is be a card-carrying Right Wing Christian and you're absolved.
Yes, I do think that some of Democratic political strategy has enabled the Trump election, along with his support from Right Wing media. Trump people are a big market for them and they are not going to give that up. And Hillary the Inevitable was too much for a lot of swing voters who leveraged the Electoral College.
Melania could be the most sympathized First Lady in the history of the presidency. Anyone who gets close to Trump gets burned. So far, only Roger Stone and Christopher Ruddy seem to know how to maintain that safe distance from him that allows them to survive. Trump supporters just dumbly look on; Trump can do no wrong.
Indeed, Trump could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and his followers would still vote for him. Trump could well emerge as the leader of a new corroded and immoral society if the Left gets lost in #MeToo and falls apart.
60
" Christianity demands that one accept Jesus as savior in order to be forgiven for one's sins;"
Well...not exactly. Christianity doesn't 'demand' anything. To BE a Christian (acceptance of Jesus as savior) one confesses and asks for forgiveness of sins. What these evangelical 'leaders' seem to ignore is that Trump has neither confessed nor asked for forgiveness. Such forgiveness will be forthcoming but one really must ask.
4
If he shot someone in Fifth Avenue they would bring up Vince Foster and Seth Rich. Then we would be told that no one is above the law while also being told by the likes of Alan Dershowitz that you can’t indict a sitting president.
3
"...a blender with the top off..."
Perfect.
132
Unfortunately, are we the ones left to clean up the mess... off the walls, ceiling, floor and beyond? One would think that it would be an automatic response to turn the blender off, but it keeps on whirring. People are getting hurt, people are dying from loss of medical care, people are losing their homelands and families, because somebody is playing with the Hamilton Blender.
6
Mo's best column in a long time. Perhaps the easily passed-over insight about HRC's inability to beat the Trump Chump that stands out to me:
"How did we drop so far and so fast from class to crass?
Partly, it was the Democrats’ preference for lecturing and entitlement over winning and wooing. They passed over people who had better messages and more authentic personae who might have beaten Trump, like Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, and gave the nomination to Hillary Clinton, a flawed feminist icon who was stunted in her ability to criticize her rival for his retrogressive treatment of women since she had enabled her husband in his retrogressive treatment of women."
and this, about HRC's insisting a sexual harasser stay on her staff:
"As The Times’s Susan Chira wrote, the episode was “a poignant reminder that placing women in positions of leadership does not ensure they will always act to protect other women.”
54
I'd just like to point out that Joe Biden was in deep mourning over the death of his son and stated he wasn't up to running. I like Bernie Sanders and what he stands for but does anyone realistically think a man branded as a "socialist," which is WAY further left than "liberal" was going to be electable in 2016 ?
4
FYI: Hillary Clinton BEAT Donald by three million votes! He won the electoral vote which is outdated and needs to be thrown out! Let's get that straight!
Clinton won.
8
Yes. Mo is back on track at long last.
"They passed over people who had better messages and more authentic personae who might have beaten Trump, like Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, and gave the nomination to Hillary Clinton..."
While I agree HRC was an unfortunate candidate, do you know something we all don't know? I thought Biden CHOSE not to run given that his son had just passed away.
As for Melania, I doubt there is as much pre-meditated juxtopositon in her choices (Holocaust Museum and Charlottesville?) as you are inferring; however, there is no doubt in anyone's mind that their marriage has been toast for years. The poor woman looks like she's holding back a primal scream. We Americans are so numb to scandal and "unpresidential" behavior at this point, she might as well serve him with papers ASAP. There would be 330 millions shrugs - about the same as for the Stormy Daniels affair. The only thing gnawing at me since the news broke is why so cheap? This must be what Trump means by the Art of a Deal. How did he convince her to take such a small amount of cash?
100
I recall a once famous NY state prosecutor did a young hook for $5k in D.C.? Afterwood, guy ends-up with no career and a divorce. Based on the past incident, I think $130k for 'what?' seemed in the market for Big Fish Trump, the dealmaker.
Speaking of the President's self-defined supreme dealmaker moniker, when will he realize that diplomatic negotiations and dealmaking is not the same as dickering over city property rights with local city authorities - some who are not adverse to taking a thick envelop to assess the situation?
Let's face it, Trump is a good negotiator, but his craft is best suited to enable real estate deals, TV programs, private 'universities' and bookwriting rather than international trade. The guy uses bully-tactics to pursuade lesser powers to bend over backwards to accommodate Trump's promises made to America's lowest common denominators - his Base.
The Art of the Deal isn't art at all. It's buccaneer capitalism that appears throughout business history: strong arm deeper pockets usually win 'deals'. You can't have a 'deal' among parties with wide gaps in leveraged positions. A deal presumes both parties are equally able to negotiate in good faith. It's like putting Sugar-Ray in the Ring against Cassius Marcellus Clay. The welter-weight (Sugar-Ray) would not have take-down the heavy-weight - even though he may have got a few points.
2
"The woman is hholding back a primal scream"? Why, she has a choice. But. she rather pays the price, so let her be.
2
The lawyer did it, not Trump. Trump is a terrible deal maker. That's why he's had 6 bankruptcies.
1
PRogress is what they call(ed) it The utopian country that the Republican Ike and the Democrat Kennedy looked forward to has become a cesspool of very dirty politicians backed by citizens united. Ya, that nasty piece of legislation or was it the "supreme" court(?), which has replaced the people's vote with the fed, banks, the 1%ers. It's over, no?
44
It has been the banks and their breaking of the rules at their own demise for years. They can send you to the pokey for not paying taxes, but the banks simply get fined. The rule breakers have been at large for a long time. Today, the deal breakers are tech — technology has got the general public by their cloud pushing antics. And, to note the Bitcoin combining the banks and tech — perfect. Changing the world one pixel at a time. You bet we're in a weird place in history combining Botcons and Daca. Go figure.
2
Funny, I don’t recall Joe Biden running for the Democratic nomination in 2016. I believe the poor man was grieving the loss of his beloved son. Not that basis in fact is particularly important to this columnist. Might get in the way of another cheap dig at Bill and Hillary, and we can’t have that.
150
Hillary was as flawed a candidate as we have ever seen. Everyone knows it but her and a few common sense deniers.
The Democratic establishment was clearly and wrongly behind Clinton. She had rounded up the money and the support of the super delegates. Years before the primary Biden was asked if he would run and he replied with a remark that it was way too early to talk about it and heck he didn't even know what Hillary was doing. For whatever the reason he did not run, he is well liked in eastern Pa., would have won the votes of more of the people who chose to sit out the election because they couldn't stand either candidate. Clinton lost the state by relative handful of votes. A different candidate could have kept Pa. blue.
1
Wouldn't be surprised if Melania has a long meeting with her attorney regarding that pre- and post-nup she signed. The attorney could easily slip into MarALargo unnoticed among the elite, unlike the WH. That marriage looks over...since the inauguration and many times thereafter.
41
Trump may have told her, some time ago, that if she left him he would make sure that she never saw Barron again. Now that he is president, ironically, it is harder for him to try to do that as the whole nation will be watching.
1
I wonder, is she a citizen? If not, what is her immigration status? If she divorces her citizen husband, will she be entitled to stay in the US?
1
I am sorry Mrs. Dowd, Trump is not the only one that comes off as an embarrassment. How could you not think she does??? a former model, with very little understanding about ANYTHING that has to do with holding such an influential position as that of the First Lady of the United States, and who obviously married for money and power... she is at least, as much as an embarrassment as he is. I met her at the Invictus Games in Toronto, and I was joking with my husband that she was probably very happy sitting there between Prince Harry and Prime Minister Trudeau, finally enjoying the view of handsome men. When I saw her picture with the marine, it only confirmed what I thought then. If she is not an embarrassment of a First Lady, I really do not know how low your country has to go!
106
You might want to change it to "Ms. Dowd", though she and I will probably still disagree with you......in that it is truly Mrs. Trump's husband that is the worst embarrassment almost of all time!
Patricia: she has risen to the occasion, I do think so. She is hardly an embarrassment. She is not outstanding like Eleanor Roosevelt. But she is much like Jackie, except that she married a complete oaf. Yes, married for money and power.
that is a choice, and she is living with it as best and elegantly as she can.
2
I don’t agree with you! Of all of the Trumps, she has comported herself with dignity and reserve. I believe that she never wanted this role. Her body language, particularly in the presence of her husband, is telling. She might have sensed that she should not be a crass, loud First Lady but bide her time, with dignity, until she can dump the ignorant narcissist.
2
Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden?
Can we please have someone who is likely to make it through a 4-year term alive and possibly with their teeth?
48
Their own teeth, or will you accept substitutes? Biden's look suspiciously large and bright
9
So funny! I could not stop laughing. Thank you!
2
Trump's don't?
Maureen, I am new to the Times and don't know what you wrote about Hillary in the past, but I love your writing NOW. More of the same, please. Although Trump is pretty much destroying our world as we know it, the devil's in the details. Amidst the "blender with the top off," what sticks in my head is Trump's telling "Stormy" that she reminds him of his daughter (presumably Ivanka). The psychologists and psychiatrists have years of stuff to write about just from this one year alone...makes FDR and Missy Hand and Lucy Mercer look so...sweet?
35
"It’s a shattering moment for the country, when many of the institutions that gave America its identity as a smart, brave, generous, fair country — the presidency, Congress, sports, faith, Hollywood, big business — seem corroded and immoral."
Q Maureen:
How's your brother Kevin feels about all this sad state of affairs now?
Does he still believe he is" winning" too much?
38
I was going to comment about bro Kevin too. Sometimes it seems that a little bit of Kev has rubbed off on her.
2
What exactly is the point of this disconnected, scattershot column? It seems like the verbal equivalent of a frenetic, ten minute visit to a tired amusement park. Here's the Dark Chamber of Dread, there's the Plunge Off the Matterhorn, around the corner lurks the Lagoon of the Great Whites. A themeless assemblage of disparate, forced word-glitter, largely forgotten before the last word is read. Have to admit though, that "Slovenian Sphinx" does have a little bit of shelf life.
36
Attacking the Democrats for picking Hillary is so rich--it's their fault for not picking somebody Dowd would have liked better, not her fault for incessantly tearing Clinton down, with the result that we end up with Trump. Let's just ignore the fact that the former Senator and Secretary of State was (and is) more qualified than Trump to be President many times over, and won the popular vote by millions. The reality is that the snarky attacks on Democrats hurt, in contrast to Fox News and Republicans' willingness to support Trump and his supporters regardless of what they do or say.
So great that she's now found somebody truly worthy of admiration--Melania Trump. Huh? Are you mad? She's stuck in a nightmare of her own, but she did choose to marry the loser.
With all of the hypocrisy and secrets on the right, you have to be able to find something more worthwhile to write about than this.
167
Let's also remember that if Comey hadn't sent that memo at the last minute she would have won in a landslide.
4
Exactly my reaction to this article . I’m sick of so-called progressives’ attacks on the candidate who would have furthered our causes instead of setting them back for years to come. Please stop denigrating a woman who made history by becoming the first female nominee for President by a major political party. Millions of Americans supported her, more than the other men opposing her in both the primary and the general election. So distressing to see other women take this position. Oh, and don’t rewrite the history of the 2016 election by bemoaning Joe Biden’s absence on the ballot when he chose not to run.
4
PERFECTLY said. Thank you, James.
2
Definately the blender with the top off.
13
Ever see what a 50 cup coffee perk coffee maker does if you forget & leave the top off? The full effect needs a very high ceiling (say 2-3 stories). Shoots coffee all the way to the ceiling. Creates more mess. Since coffee is nothing but bitter brown water, with nothing worthwhile in it, it’s a better visual. Does smell good though. Since cleaning the ceiling is really out of the question, the aroma lasts pretty near forever.
Maureen Dowd, In 2018 vote D down the line. Then, perhaps only then this country can steady the ship of democracy and drain the swamp, I mean the republican enablers.
35
"How did we drop so far and so fast from class to crass?" you ask. Have you paused to consider that in good part it's because of writers like you? Your column and its persistent Hillary Clinton attack certainly isn't powerful enough to have tipped the scales in Trump's favor, but you certainly did your bit.
150
She also sunk Al Gore (setting aside the fact that he actually won) with her school-yard bullying about "earth tones," which, who doesn't occasionally wear earth tones, i.e. warm colors, like browns, tans, etc.? I'll never forgive Dowd for giving us Bush.
7
I don't pontificate on what goes on in her mind or what her motives might be. I also don't need to pick apart their ''marriage'' regardless if they are the first family or not.
She was and is a grown woman that seems like she has half a brain and with all likelihood, knew what she was ''signing'' on to in the first place. She got the wealth and the jet setting and the designer clothes. She got the gold plated everything and the freedom to do most of what she wanted. She is now in the limelight and being picked apart every which way.
I don't have sympathy for her one way or the other. I only care about whether the President ( or anyone in this administration\family ) broke the law, and if they did, will they be held accountable ?
That is it. Save the psychology exercises for lesser papers.
67
A sensible column, restrained in tone.
3
Melania chose to marry Donald Trump and have a child with him. So, it's hard for me to believe that she'd have the subtlety to select fighting cyberbullies as a project because it would be a wicked rip on her husband. But I do appreciate your ingenuity in interpreting Melania's behavior in this clever fashion.
25
Anna et al, as another commenter wrote, still waters run deep. I think she is actually QUITE subtle. Never underestimate the weapons of the "weak." Not that she is, but definitely in relation to DT she is.
1
Renegotiate the prenup NOW.
16
One of your best Maureen. The poor girl made a Faustian bargain and has found herself and her son in the middle of a whirlwind. One gets the sense that Trump has no control over his wife, which terrifies him, because she alone, as an individual, may have the power to stage a reveal all that would be catastrophic and embarrass him as a man. Actually, a detailed critique from her on the marital bed would be right on script. Oh my! Now that would shake up his base. The blowhard can't perform. No surprise.
30
I don't pontificate on what goes on in her mind or what her motives might be. I also don't need to pick apart their ''marriage'' regardless if they are the first family or not.
She was and is a grown woman that seems like she has half a brain and with all likelihood, knew what she was ''signing'' on to in the first place. She got the wealth and the jet setting and the designer clothes. She got the gold plated everything and the freedom to do most of what she wanted. She is now in the limelight and being picked apart every which way.
I don't have sympathy for her one way or the other. I only care about whether the President ( or anyone in this administration\family ) broke the law, and if they did, will they be held accountable ?
That is it. Save the psychology exercises for lesser papers.
10
Bernie is not a Democrat.
59
If we are speaking of values rather than meaningless party affiliations, then Bernie is more of a democrat than Hillary. That is the simple truth that we all know.
3
With a large D, that is. Ask the young people. Ask the factory workers. They know.
Nothing new here except I did like "blender with the top off"
14
It does feel a bit like ancient Rome with a sprinkle of Thunder Dome.
8
Oh Maureen. I could have predicted what you were going to write yet again.
Time and again, you are unable to mask your deep admiration for Donald Trump and deep loathing of the Clintons.
This would have made such an interesting article had it focused solely on the topic at hand: Melania's subtle actions against her husband. But when you throw in slights and backhands that always include the Clintons (and how do you know that Bernie would have beaten Trump? That's an insult to every Trump voter), then the message gets lost and watered down.
You can do better than this, Maureen. Drop that constant negative berating of the Clintons. They are now out of the political mainstream.
70
Democrats in congress need to link a measure protecting the Special Counsel to the next continuing resolution, or failing that, just plan to have 3 week CRs for the next three years.
If Trump fires Mueller, and the republicans do nothing, the country would support a govt shutdown... over to you, Chuck...
6
Clinton's reference in this article makes absolutely no sense. Blaming the Democrats for trump's win because it supported Clinton mirrors blaming a woman's clothes for being raped. Trump gets away with his disgusting behavior because no one in the GOP stands up to it.
Clinton wasn't a good choice, but neither Bernie nor Binden could've won because the former (Bernie) was too extreme and the latter (Biden) was status quo. And Russia played a significant role in the propaganda campaign.
Bottom line, how can this country endure 3 more years of the trump nightmare, never mind how Melania endured and will continue to endure that fake marriage to that fake man. She can walk out the door to freedom anytime, but she chooses the "queen" lifestyle over her own self-respect. And if she did walk out the door, the GOP leaders and trump's other sycophants would be groveling at her feet.
39
Many thanks, Ms. Dowd. As is the first lady, soon or later we all pay a price when we benefit, directly or indirectly, from someone like her husband.
4
Peter, the best comment today!
1
The cameras love to pan up into the gallery to marvel at the sartorial splendor of the first lady.
Does the first lady make an appearance at Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday?
Will this be another snub to be added to the Dowd list ?
With the week Trump just had, the question of the day is which will happen first......impeachment/resignation or divorce?
7
I doubt this comment will be published but here goes anyway, it'll be an exercise in Zen... Trump married a "party girl". Beautiful women are paid or "invited" to go to a party with the intent of having sex with one of the very wealthy men who are also "invited". Maybe something will happen beyond that but the "party" is set up for the benefits of the rich men. The "host" is either compensated then, or later by way of a "deal". She knew what she was getting into and went so far as to have one of his children. It's a business deal. To portray her as anything but a "party girl", in WAY over her beautiful head is wrong.
Regarding Hillary. As my Dad used to say, "Hence the present address". It was another way of saying that people's actions have an effect on their lives. Hillary not firing that creepy "faith advisor" is yet another example of her having really no interest in anything but herself. Hence the present address.
10
The faith advisor thing was a different time. Hillary took action. Do you actually think if this had happened right now she wouldn't have fired him immediately? And Bill is Bill, and Hill is Hill. What takes place in a marriage is none of our business.
3
Knowing he was a sexist, racist monster for decades, Hillary and Bill took Trump's money for their campaigns, Bill played golf with him, and they both went to his third wedding (while standing AGAINST the right of gay people to have even one at that time). We need people with higher standards and better judgement than this. Of course I voted for Mrs. Clinton given the binary choice of her and Trump. Virtually any random person on the street would make a better president than Trump. But let's make the Democratic Party run fairer primaries next time so that the will of the people prevails over the will of the establishment and the donors next time.
13
"How did we drop so far and so fast from class to crass?" Shakespeare answered this a few years back when Hamlet asked Gertrude the same question, "And what judgment would step from this to this?" Quite simply, "...reason panders will." (Act III, Scene 4). Amygdala-triggered responses now trump reason. Baser instincts rule the body politic. Forget any hope of Lincoln-esque 'better angels of our natures'. Rome is burning. As John Adams predicted, "...democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
11
Perhaps we are not a "smart, brave, generous, fair country" after all. The Donald is a truer reflection of the country which has yet to come to terms with its history of slavery and Native American Genocide. Just watch that great reflection of American culture, an NFL football game and our so-called President becomes much more understandable. Half-naked cheerleaders, fighter jets overhead and hyper-masculine violence on the field; Trumpie shouldn't be such a surprise.
26
I don't feel sympathy for the devil's wife. She made a devil's bargain to be Trump's third trophy wife. She knew what she was getting into when she married Trump. What, did she thought he was going to turn over a new leaf and be a monogamist when he married for a third time. If she truly feels that she married a cheat then simply present him with divorce paperwork when he get backs from Davos.
19
She did not think he would be President. Neither did I until I saw how he was running, and who the Dems would put up.
1
"Hillary Clinton, a flawed feminist icon who was stunted in her ability to criticize her rival for his retrogressive treatment of women since she had enabled her husband in his retrogressive treatment of women."
Hillary was flawed because her husband cheated? Trump, the thrice-married adulterer with a long history of "retrogressive treatment of women," wasn't "stunted" when he repeatedly criticized Clinton for her husband's affairs- much to the delight of the right wing and religious conservatives. I expected more of Dowd than to stoop to this misogynistic trope.
47
Hillary wasn't flawed because her husband cheated; she was flawed because she accepted it in order to further her own ambitions. She & her husband sold out their youthful idealism years ago - if it was ever authentic to begin with. Yeah, I voted for her...couldn't vote for the alternative. But she's shown herself time & again to be a poor manager, and incapable of working for consensus. I don't believe she would have made a good president...tho I admit, probably Dennis Rodman could do as good a job as Trump!
Wherever you have been the last month, clearly you have sharpened the knives to make the death of a thousand cuts to shred his master-in-chief. You made me guffaw out loud several times with your witty rapier, but the serious message beneath is not lost. Good work!
6
She's probably signed some massive "I won't divorce you while you're President package. It's the only possible explanation.
6
Seems to me, like most republicans, you turn to bashing Hillary when confronting Trump's outrageousness.
49
Maureen, I was actually enjoying your column and saying to myself, “please don’t say anything about Hillary. Focus on Melania and her husband.” I even smiled at a positive reference to Barack Obama. But then, there it was, the gratuitous references to Hillary once again. Please, New York Times, your columnist and your reporters, why is it necessary to continue to find fault with the losing candidate? She was a role model to many women and girls. We are all flawed but she had/has to be perfect.
Finally, do not forget that while Bernie had some grand ideas worth considering, he also wrote of women getting cancer because they didn’t have orgasms, not a model of a feminist ally. The way he treated he wife at rallies was not a model of feminism either. Re Joe Biden, remember Anita Hill? So let’s not kid ourselves that only Hillary has to be a model of perfect deportment while all her male rivals are better supporters of women and more likely to defeat our 45th president. At least 65 million voters disagree.
51
Good comment, but I believe that ancient comment of Bernie's was meant as satire and part of a longer, pretty witless screed mocking the sexual revolution. He is no Jane Austen, but he is not a psychopathic male chauvinist either.
1
And I was looking forward to her Alpine wardrobe....
7
Oh thanks - this made me laugh!
Maureen Dowd, I think it is time to stop bad mouthing Hillary and concentrate on the president you and his other followers elected. As far as Melania, maybe she stayed behind because she feels out of place and out of sources at world economic meetings and has nothing to say. After all, we're not talking about Jackie, Michelle, Hillary, or Barbra, whom didn't exist in the shadow of their husband. They were highly educated and accomplished First Ladies and had a lot to say and do about things that mattered.
37
Fourth article about Hillary Clinton within the last 24 hours and a 10 yr old incident with New York Times reporters - all women - suggesting she did enough steps to protect a young woman. The question that all should be asked is if their interpretation of her endeavors to work for Women's Rights are somewhat lacking, why has she selected for the past 20 years in America and around the world as one of the Most Admired Women?
Still waiting for Maggie H, Amy C, Susan C, Gail C, and Maureen D to answer the above question. Secondly, why have all consented to do this unseemly barrage about a woman who has proclaimed she will not be a 2020 candidate? Is it possible the recent news of Joe Biden and John Kerry considering a run have anything to do with this?
19
stiletto heels waltzing through the Houston hurricane aftermath- a strategic shot at a president who could only top it later by throwing extra absorbent paper towels at Puerto Rican hurricane victims. I feel reassured by this first family! 'Sad' when it gets down to the only thing you can find to like about trump is Melania, and even then....???
8
So tired of Maureen Dowd and everyone else indulging in the hackneyed observation that the Democrats lost because Hillary was a "flawed" candidate.
Really?
All candidates are flawed. It's up to voters to choose the least flawed. Not in a million years will anyone ever convince me that there was any justification for any voter to pick Trump over Hillary Clinton.
Hillary was -- hands down -- the more qualified, better informed, nuanced and dignified candidate. Trump does not have a single redeeming quality.
A better explanation for the 2016 election is that the media -- including snarky Maureen -- failed to properly vet Trump and that the Republicans made a mistake. The best candidates do not always win the elections. Trump is proof.
57
"...a smart, brave, generous, fair country"...I forgot when that was, Ms. Dowd. Although, you are correct - we were that at one time, the exact decade I can not recall. This past year seems like a generation of hate and angst and outrage.
To return to Melania, well, every photo reveals a lady miserably unhappy. As a woman, heck, as a human being, I understand. Just imagine having a child whose father is a bigot, liar, and philanderer, the last of which occurring when mom is singing lullabies during sleepless colicky nights.
It is anyone's guess how long the most recent Mrs. Trump can endure the mistreatment of basically everyone on the planet by a power hungry narcissist. She really seems to be a decent individual. So, with all this in mind, I say to the First Lady: "It's okay, and we support you if you want to find a more peaceful life away from the WH for you and your son. We understand."
21
If one lies down with dogs, one gets fleas
46
"It’s a shattering moment for the country, when many of the institutions that gave America its identity as a smart, brave, generous, fair country — the presidency, Congress, sports, faith, Hollywood, big business — seem corroded and immoral."
You forgot the press and the pundits in the list of those "corroded". I couldn't be more tired of you trashing Hillary, as if that helps anything. No politician I know of has withstood the enmity and subterfuge of so many, not to mention the obsessive scrutiny of her failures. She won a deeply corrupted election by 3 million. And now we have DJ and his trophy wife. How could you, Ms. Dowd?
59
This is what any woman would have gone through, picture the 11-hour interrogation, the debates, the energy and effort even decades back when she fought for universal health care and was ripped up for it. Where was Bernie then? But the misogyny in this, not only on the right and not only from men, is and was part of our nation's character. Will the next woman who can ascend to that place fare better? We may not live long enough to answer that. It took women 60 years to get the vote after black men did, so I won't hold my breath.
5
"Big business" as helping to create a "generous" and "fair" country? Huh? Sounds like classic Trump doublespeak.
13
As a divorce lawyer I well know this: What do you get when you marry a man who cheated on his wife with you? A man who cheats on his wife. I don't think Melania minds the cheating, it's the public humiliation about it that is a drag. Staying away from Davos was just a show for the "little people".
32
"...a poignant reminder that placing women in positions of leadership does not ensure they will always act to protect other women...
Would placing sassy redheads in positions of leadership ensure that they would always act to protect other sassy redheads???
Mo, did Samantha ever push you out of the way of a falling anvil, as you journalistically and/or metaphorically walked the streets of NYC???
It can be quite dangerous late at night - especially around the bus station...
3
OK. I know she did it to herself by marrying the Cheetos flavored President, but I can't help feel empathy for any woman trapped in a marriage with such a man.
She must surely be regretting every minute of her life trapped in a gilded cage.
10
Thanks for holding Melania up as a role model, while slamming Hillary, Maureen. It’s good to be reminded that no matter how bad things get, we can always be glad it’s not Hillary in the White House. Nothing is as important as that. /s
40
Trump is the anti christ according to the dems and media but he beats 16 primary and the most experienced woman in the general election , the economy is firing on all cylinders crumbs bonuses and all , he beat the dems on immigration by pushing them to shut the government in support of illegal immigrants , he's passing most of his agenda faster then anybody expected despite the investigations and in fighting , God help the dems if they succeed and impeach him because the replacement will be old reliable staid Pence , may you get what you wish for is an old chinese curse .
5
The constant deflection to Hillary Clinton's supposed flaws and how Bernie would have won are getting really, really, REALLY, REALLY old. And they are no more true from constant water torture repetition.
Get an intellectual life, Ms. Dowd.
61
If Tony Perkins can give Trump a mulligan, then all evangelicals will give him a mulligan. How ironic the conservative Christians are using a golf metaphor for a president who spends more time golfing than governing.
20
So, Maureen Dowd, sharp-as-a-tack NYT columnist, sees in Melania Trump's Cyber Bullying cause, "a first-lady project that could only be interpreted as a wicked rip on her husband: fighting vicious cyberbullies." ONLY interpreted as such? Silly me, I thought it was yet one more perfect example of the contempt the Trump campaign and presidency hold for the American people's intelligence--along the lines of appointing Callista Gingrich as ambassador to the Vatican, trotting Sarah Huckabee Sanders out daily to enlighten us, etc., etc., etc. The New Yorker humorist Andy Borowitz strikes me as much more insightful on Melania's Cyber Bullying campaign, but who knows, perhaps Maureen is on to something, discerning depth in this "master stroke" of the "Slovenian Sphinx." What's next? Will Maureen report on Melania's eye blinks and decipher an anti-Trump Morse Code message being sent out to the world? Perhaps, perhaps not. One can be certain that Maureen will never look in the mirror and see anyone who played a role in getting us into this mess, but she will see something ugly about Hillary Clinton that she can plug into her column.
53
save your breath, Trump is not going anywhere.
2
Please do not bring ancient Rome into the picture.
Please do not weave fantasies about General Kelly marshaling his troops.
It really happened in ancient Rome. It could happen here
The Roman Senate--beset by corruption and cronyism. The courts--appalling. Mob violence in the streets. The provinces--ruined.
They had their Republic almost five hundred years. Roughly TWICE the time we've had ours.
But human things break down. Fall apart. Disintegrate.
When you don't take care of them.
Julius Caesar--and a long long line of emperors--were all waiting in the wings. The Roman Republic--properly speaking--was a thing of the past.
Et iam quotus quisque rem publicam vidisset--says Tacitus. On the funeral of Augustus. "How many had actually SEEN--the Republic?"
Poor Melania. She does what she can. My heart goes out to her.
And her husband? The President of the United States?
Get him out of here!
It reminds me of old-fashioned talent shows (as depicted on "The Honeymooners" if anyone remembers). Some wretched act goes on FAR too long. Someone thrusts an immense CANE from behind some convenient curtain--hooks it round the waist of some untalented boor--
--and inexorably pulls the poor guy offstage. Wriggling, uttering loud imprecations I have no doubt. Imprecations like:
"FAKE MEDIA! FAKE NEWS!" But to repeat. . . .
. . .please get him out of here. Anyone back there? Back behind the curtain?
Thanks, Ms. Dowd. Fine piece.
4
Okay, enough of the unsubstantiated innuendo about Hillary the enabler. The best prepared presidential candidate of our time, who only won the popular by 3 million, should have had the foresight to predict the #MeToo moment (sure). Clearly, her main weakness is loyalty, and the fact that she actually loves her husband. So that makes her a ripe target for the Snide Remarker in Chief and his back stabbing, former Sportswriter imitator.
33
Has it dawned on Trump (perhaps during a burger-induced snooze) that if you change the last "a" in Melania's name, she becomes what he is terrified of.
Bernie is a one trick pony, not even a Democrat, intent on destroying the party that he’s not a member of. Maybe ten years ago for Biden. Plus they are both too old. Maureen, when will you ever do a positive column about anyone?
31
Ok sure, but what an unprecedentedly huge and tremendous crowd like world has never seen before in Davos. And much love there. More than has ever been given to any US President in history. Plus respect. Hugely on display.
So Melan(chol)ia is sending “help me” codes from the tower. Well, aren’t we all.
7
Maureen is bieng vilified by the NY Times commentariat, for stating the truth about Hillary Clinton: she got beat by a huckster from Queens, and there must be some good reason for that, and in fact there is: half the country can't stand Hillary and her manufactured, lecturing, identity-politics, pandering, Wall Street-friendly, establishment, passé, militaristic, extremely self-entitled grab at the Presidency.
Liberals (and I count myself one) can keep complaining about the facts, or they can wake up and start figuring out how to win back some voters. Hints: (1) Stop with the identity politics; (2) Don't shut down the government for the benefit of illegal immigrants; (3) Tone down the constant outrage, and propose something positive that will benefit American citizens. Or, keep up the outrage, fight hardest for immigrants, and rally around Hillary: and risk a second Trump term. If Democrats would only get a little smarter, we could beat Trump next time around, but there is a real and serious risk that he could get re-elected in 2020. Don't be so sure it couldn't happen. After all, Hillary was absolutely sure she would be elected last November...
18
Sorry, but Hillary Clinton carried/ won the Popular Vote by a larger margin than President Obama did during his first election. She didn't win the Electoral College but we as Americans now have to face the fact that the Russians aka Putin did deviously interfere in the 2016 Presidential Election. It is totally possible that Ms. Clinton did actually win. No leader is perfect...Hillary definitely made mistakes but her qualifications and her experience offered this country a great deal more than Mr. Trump. The Sexism and Racism and Greed that is consuming this country's culture, government and business institutions is disgusting. Rome did fall and if the U.S. doesn't wake up and start thinking critically and ethically we will fall within the next decade.
5
Got a candidate? And don't say Bernie.
1
Maureen is always in her wheelhouse when writing political gossip columns, which was the first half of this one. Clearly the prenupt doesn't provide Melania with enough capital to continue the life to which she is now accustomed or she would have fired Donald years ago.
Now my question for Maureen is, "did the Trump contrast finally make you respect Obama enough not to refer to him as Barry?"
I also wonder if Trump's presidency ever makes her regret that her columns preceding his election made Donald and Hillary seem equally flawed but Donald much more charming. Maybe next presidential election she will elevate competence above personality as a presidential asset. That might be helpful.
28
"How did we drop so far and so fast from class to crass?"
Asks a prominent columnist who constantly attacked Obama and Clinton, and helped grease the skids for Trump. And repeatedly invites her far right brother to guest write for her.
40
At 81, this long retired Family Therapist wishes not waste words and energy on
the flawed Existent We, the People allowed into the Highest Office in our precious Land. However, I, too, wish to “cut some slack” on criticism of
Melania Trump. In High School, the boys and girls always had a good grasp on
Whoever could bring on the great “Snow Job”. “President” Trump is Still
exercising it. As a longretired Lutheran pastor, I used to say to clients and
parishioners, “We live in a Broken World”. It’s still “Broken”. I won’t “Analyze”
Melania....Spmehow, I empathize with Her...maybe even, now, sympathize
with her. For the sake of the Public he chooses to Rule in his “Snow Job”,
I chose to Despize Him. He doesn’t know enough to Care...or care enough to
Know. Somehow, I hope, we, the People, will still Survive His Active Presence.
3
Considering America as a values based country is a mistake. Its treatment of blacks, women, minorities, under privileged, low income - all make a clear case for what the country is. What the country is is equal to what it always was.
Want to look elsewhere for evidence?
Look at the number of times a camera seeks the rear of an actress in Hollywood.
Donald Trump is as much a native of America as they come. Obama WAS the aberration. And that aberration has been summarily dismissed by the country because its hatred, unaddressed issues were far too strong.
More evidence?
Look at the themes of Miss Dowd’s articles - mostly titillation that gives the pen its incision.
Melania likely knew what she was getting into. There were two more wives in front of her with similar tales of mindlessness and arrogant lust.
The country never went from class to crass, Miss Dowd; it never swayed away too far from crass, deep insecurity, murderoussness sold as heroism to begin with.
Time the US of A admits what it really is. Rome come again. Trump is the king anointed by the applauding people. The alternative choice was equally bad.
7
After a year of leaving Melania Trump alone, suddenly the media is all over her: gossip-style, tawdry innuendo, speculation about motives.
Writers in the NYT and Washington Post are suddenly using Melania Trump as the springboard with which to attack the President. At a time when women are exposing sexist males entertainment and business leaders, this anti-Melania Trump strikes me as awful perverse and retrogressive. If journalists want to slam the president for his policies and his megalomania, then do your jobs. But back-door approach of smearing his wife is tacky, and frankly amoral.
4
Somehow, I doubt that the Slovenian Barbie is capable of the kinds of feelings imputed to her here....She's made it abundantly clear that she's All About Money.
21
Yes, Ms. Dowd, Barack Obama did call to our better angels, something that you yourself scorned at during his presidency. When the GOP nominee won, your next column gleefully crowed that the Republican nominee's election win was a repudiation of President Obama. And you ask, "how did we drop so far and so fast from class to crass?"
That is a question that 62 million Americans have to ask themselves every day, including you and your brother Kevin. Do you both still toast champagne at "so much winning" and success of this presidency? Yes, this president is an embarrassment to every patriotic American, except to Congressional Republicans who would follow him into the fires of Hades.
The First Lady suffers the same shame and pain as do the American people. She and we, the people, have been misled, used, cheated and emotionally abused by this man who has no pity or remorse about anything. But the First Lady, as did the 62 million, knew he had flaws but gave him a pass and gambled that he would change and be a better man. We all know how that's working out these days.
We have all been gamed by the president and his Congressional enablers. The mirror in front of America in 2016 was polished and clear, as was the choice between the two candidates for the White House. Only one of them was eminently qualified, in spite of her name, and, yes, her gender. The other candidate was a carnival barker, a George Wallace in an orange fright wig who captured America's fancy. And won.
28
I thought this was a column about Melania. But you can't resist going after Hillary, can you? The decision Hillary Clinton made nine years ago was the wrong one. I don't doubt for a second that she would decide differently today.
21
Was she required to go to Davos?
Give her a break. Imagine a day in the life of Melania?
She also has a child whom she appears to be very dedicated to.
Let her be. Alone.
4
My fear is Mueller will find evidence of obstruction of justice & Trump's money-laundering for the Russian mob - & the Republicans in the House & Senate won't care. That the ongoing GOP war & Trump battle cry "Mueller is a partisan crook & the FBI is packed with Democrat loving criminals staging a coup against Trump" will have worked & will leave Trump in office despite evidence of his criminality. Then Trump will say he's not leaving, he's going to tough it out against "Dems staging a coup." We will face a crisis like we've never seen.
And Ms. Dowd is yet again sliming Hillary. This reminds me of Joe Scarborough repeatedly raising the issue of Hillary's emails during the months Scarborough repeatedly hosted Trump - in person and in phone calls - allowing Trump to blather his nonsense unchallenged on "Morning Joe" throughout the 2016 campaign. Scarborough now insists that he knew he could never vote for Trump even as he laid out a welcome mat for Trump during the campaign - day after day after day. Joe & MIka now insist they're headquarters of "The Resistance." But nobody is forgetting which media folks kept presenting candidate Trump as outrageous & fascinating - without ever saying "We know him personally & he's cognitively, temperamentally & psychologically unfit to be President." Which all of you assure us in hindsight that you knew.
This means you, Maureen Dowd.
You want credibility now? Better luck next time.
28
The effort to bestow subtlety, moral values, defense of women on Melania Trump is the most bizarre pitch I have heard, including Nunes. She is a uneducated woman from an Eastern European country not noted for its educational systems or its leadership in ethical behavior.
She then proceeded into an industry favoring seductive looking women who, given all the current revelations, likely had to submit to some fairly misogynist behavior.
And Maureen enobles her for marrying Donald, 40+ years older, but a billionaire with everything. An obvious Melania plan to convert this pig into...What?
Read or listen to the Howard Stern interview with them.
Maureen, is this really where your head is?
16
Gotta love those Evangelicals. And God said 'Let there be mulligans.' And there were mulligans.
9
I'll ignore the snarky parts of this article (which means most of it) and say only that the Obamas -- the dignified Obamas whom most of us miss more than we imagined possible -- always seemed like a team. And that takes a special dynamic, because you know the cliché -- "there's no 'I' in team." Or as they must be saying around the White House these day -- "there's no 'Donald' in team." Looks like there's no Melania, either.
15
Dear Maureen,
It's really too bad, and actually disingenuous, that your praise for Obama emerges now rather than when he was President. I distinctly recall your usually portraying him as a disengaged intellectual - an elitist - who lacked what was it, drama? Well you've got drama in spades now! We had a serious President who was capable of objective, rational analysis of policy issues and of offering pragmatic, creative solutions. Unfortunately, you failed to appreciate what we had when we had it. So, next time you lean your head against the White House gate and give thanks for the kind of change in occupancy we had in 2008 be sure to remember your responsibility as a journalist to keep on giving thanks if and when we have a chance to rectify the electoral "decision" of 2016.
Bob
24
"You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."
I'll leave it at that.
9
feel somewhat sorry for Melania. She was looking for a sugar daddy and she got FLOTUS. If she had married for love her life would be much different.
3
Make that "by" the way.
Ms. Dowd, after years of being critical of Presidents Obama and Clinton while giving a pass in most of your columns to Trump’s behavior and lack of qualifications for any political office during the campaign, why don’t you admit that Hillary Clinton would be have been exponentially better at being president than Trump?
25
Donald to Damien birth analogy...love it!
Whatever Maureen says that may be worth saying, she is undercut by her gratuitously nasty spite against Hilary (who won the national vote by 3,000,000; remember) and it's now all lovey dovey with Obama. It's too late to make amends without a serious mea culpa.
35
When Trump won, I said to myself “this is Melania’s perfect opportunity to renegotiate her pre-up. “ Who knows...maybe already did.
4
I skimmed through this and just as I suspected, more Hillary bashing.
I’m glad I saved the time.
26
No sympathy from me for Melania. She knew what she was getting and she made her pact with the devil. I do feel very sorry for their child.
11
It seems news organizations are not covering the story of the hundreds of thousands of Americans on Puerto Rico who still have no electricity, no clean water and no access to medical care. And columnists aren't asking how Trump is getting away with this.
Meanwhile Dowd is on Melania-Watch - while reminiscing about how awful Hillary is.
Shame.
33
Excellent
analysis.But I he would add that not only is he an embarrassing husband, president and world leader, but he is an embarrassment to the entire male specie. He is a joke. He is a braggart, liar, womanizer, bully, and classless.
Furthermore, while he brags he is educated and a genius, he is the opposite. He doesn’t read, take briefings, listen to his advisers—-unless there is a threat that could take him down, when Attorney McGann was readying himself to walk if he fired Mueller.
Why the Republicans hang on to this crazy man is shameful. Everyone of them ought to be ousted. It is time for a Martin Luther to enter politics, hang demands on the doors of Congress and start a reformation of the GOP.
5
One of my favorite signs at the Women's March last week? "Free Melania."
4
I'm disappointed, lately, that I learn nothing when I read Maureen Dowd's work. This is a little bit gossip column and pointing out the obvious--we can all see for ourselves what an obscene joke our president is. It's nothing new. What is the way out? Talk about 2018 and how a clean sweep can be achieved.
9
Maureen. I love your insightful and sometimes humorous columns but have always wondered why you seemed to have it in for Hillary. Of course she has her faults but can you compare them with the Donalds? I hope you are happy. Now we are stuck with tRump and his complicit congress for at least four years, maybe eight. Do you have any regrets?
17
Oh, the irony. Maureen bashed Hillary Clinton at every opportunity during the campaign -- America's premiere catfight. So HC get decimated in the election, and now Maureen turns on the victor, with a weird nod to Bernie Sanders. Has this woman no shame?
21
Stop railing against Hillary Clinton. Whatever you have to say about Melania, the comparison is not accurate. Thank you for reading this thought.
26
You and Trump share much in common. The most obvious is that you both are lousy friends. You shift with the wind and say anything. For the whole miserable campaign you sounded like Trump's best buddy. Then your other friends told you enough already and you abandoned him in an instant.
27
Great work Ms.Dowd. Great work.
I am baffled and offended by the facile blaming of Hillary Clinton for her husband's misdeeds. The only thing she is guilty of is believing and trusting her husband.
Donald Trump was a jerk when he attempted to blame Hillary for Bill's philandering, and now Ms. Dowd buys into the same corrosive nonsense.
Did Hillary really "enable" Bill's treatment of women? If so, exactly how? Was she in the Oval Office anteroom holding Bill's hand when he initiated sexual acts with Monica Lewinsky? Is there any evidence whatsoever that she ever consented to these sorts of acts by her philandering husband?
Is she to be blamed simply for not divorcing him? Isn't this a little like blaming the victim instead of the perpetrator?
42
Why exactly did Melania leave DC on Thursday following her much publicized visit to the Holocaust Museum? Initial reports were that she would attend a charity function chaired by Trump's sister at Mar a Lago, but before that event began, she was heading back to DC, having been in Palm Beach for just over a day. Did she storm out of DC-- despite the vague denial by her spokesperson-- wen Donnie called and said, "Baby, come back. You know you're the only one. Besides, the prenup demands you come when I call"?
3
I've had it with Maureen Dowd's incessant attacks on Hillary Clinton, by far the most talented person to run for the presidency in 2016. Dowd, along with Trey Gowdy and the Russians, helped demonize Hillary, suppress the Democratic vote and elect Donald Trump. Does she have any regrets about this? Apparently not, still shilling for Bernie Sanders, a politician with few accomplishments for his long years in the U.S. Senate.
50
Melania Trump must have the hide of a crocodile to have put up with Donald this long. Or maybe being ignored is better than being groped. Whatever. In the meantime, she has established her own business and is raising her own child - the son Donald probably wouldn't recognize if he passed him on the street. Maybe it's just not worth the aggravation any more, and she's planning a new start without Donald. Just as most of the USA is desperate to do.
7
Trump holds these Delusions to be self-evident, that he is created superior, that he is endowed by his immense ego with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Corruption, Collusion, and the dismantling of Democracy.
Just ask Melania.
14
On her worse day, Hillary Clinton would be a million times better President than that despot Trump, and there would never be the equivalent of a Stormy Daniels in the picture. Think about that Maureen!
34
Melania is America's metaphor. Still young, still beautiful, and all the money in the world, but miserable because we're chained to a pig.
There was no winner in the last election. Clinton would have simply greased the same skids, had she been elected. Trump has greased 'em and installed a rocket on the back of our national sled. Hillary would have let gravity take us over the cliff. Donald has just made the crash tabloid worthy.
America is the drunk. We either die of organ failure, or we crash our car into a school bus. Trump's election says it's the school bus.
4
Just as the voters knew what they were getting into when they voted for Trump, Melania knew what she was getting into when she married him.
No sympathy.
12
Love the quote "from class to crass." Indeed, how did America elect this ignorant, incompetent, vulgar and cartoonish fool? I don't feel sorry for Melania and don't think she's independent, strong or rebellious. She knew who he was when she married him just as we knew who he was when we elected him. She could divorce him but that would take a fearlessness I'm not sure she has. And we the electorate can vote him out of office with a fearlessness I hope that matches our repugnance.
8
How does a column on the frayed relationship between the President and the First Lady turn, yet again, into an attack on Hillary Clinton, now in full and total has-been status?
" How did we drop so far and so fast from class to crass?"
You did YOUR part, Maureen, with lots of gusto in constantly attacking Clinton while soft-pedaling Trump's clear sociopathy and incompetence!
"Partly, it was the Democrats’ preference for lecturing and entitlement over winning and wooing. "
So...Donald Trump and the bomb-throwing dirty history of Republicans going back to Newt Gingrich is....the DEMOCRATS' fault???
Hey! The other night my gas grill broke--must be the Democrats' fault!
42
My hope is for as happy life for Ms. Trump ad her son after this misbegotten mishegas of a regime finally ends-maybe Barron will finally be able to have a dog!
2
Glad to see you have returned to fighting form, Ms. Dowd, and that you have trained your snark on Trump where it belongs. As for Melania, I do not especially like or dislike the First Lady. My ho-hum attitude may be based on what I perceive as a "lack of effort," a phrase we teachers are apt to use when describing a C student. I understand that she may not have a feel for the job in terms of championing a cause that could help the American people because she has a relatively short history here and has never had to struggle with anything of real substance in her charmed life in NYC. However, I did feel great empathy for her on Inauguration Day when Trump flipped between ignoring and humiliating her, beginning with his walking ahead into the White House, giving us our first look at our Jerk-In-Chief as husband. For her sake, I hope Melania will dump this creep as soon as his train wreck of a presidency comes crashing to an ignominious end.
4
Melanie is way too weak to leave this slob. One has to be real desperate to even have gotten involved with him.
Yes she threw her little tantrum and didn't go to Davos, but then like a good little girl she was there to greet him when he came back.
What she could use is a good shrink and a good consciousness raising group to give her the strength to become a whole person.
4
Maureen, usually a fan of the metered venom, but really, HC lives rent free in both your and the Fuhrer's heads. She's been in private life for over a year now and it's waaay past time to get over it. Either that, or kindly take a seat at the State run media outlet so affectionately referred to as Fox News.
32
Are Melania's fashion choices a sign of her moral interior? She took a hit with Louboutin-gate, but naive to imply only GOP millionaires demonstrate a grotesque attraction to luxury & the myopic, segregated lifestyle wealth engenders. I know a retinue of writer/artists, quite attached to their fat accounts, sporting $1K shoes. See "What the Rich Won't Tell You" or Dave Eggers piece on CN Adiche. Some wear it on the arm like Mnuchin. Many are married to finance-types but pretend to a middleclass status, contrived to avoid alienating the less well-off peers they depend on for artistic credibility. One tells people they're middleclass, disingenuously writes of housecleaning & yardwork. With writerly friends, dresses down/boho avant guard, and with wealthy friends, sports Hermes & Rolex, designer clothes, peripatetic first-class travel, maid service several times a week for basically childfree homes. This dissembling 1%er eats up grants/awards that should go to those needing them to keep working.
Even with some money of their own, they'd never quit a sham marriage b/c it's not enough to maintain the lifestyle. Why give up the UWS & botox for a 1 BR in Queens & a SUNY artist-in-residence? There's no shortage of hypocrisy or corrupted character among the wealthy of any stripe. Trump's tone-deaf shoe error differs little from the wealthy liberals' virtue-signaling donation of hand-me-down suits & cashmere sweaters to those who can't afford the dry-cleaning cost of owning them.
3
If the Trumps divorce, who gets the White House?
6
So now it's "Barack Obama was always calling to our better angels. "
Back in the day, you were belittling "Barry," helping to enable the indifference to qualifications that gave us our Very Stable Genius.
25
Donald's favorite trope is "terrible."
When he hears the name of Barack Obama -- predictably -- it is his prompt to instantly invoke his trope (" terrible on this and terrible on that.")
Now let's turn to Maureen Dowd's column.
#1: Donald is a "terrible" husband (not just for Melania, but also for Ivana and Marla)
#2: Donald is a "terrible" president
#3: . . . and like Humpty-Dumpty, Donald should prepare himself for a "terrible" fall from the presidency.
#4: Finally, although Donald doesn't read books, the histories of his abbreviated presidency (surely it will end in 2018) will routinely offer evaluations of his performance as #45 as nothing other than "terrible."
And #45 has inflicted upon our nation circumstances best described as "terrible."
1
Frosty? She is married to the most powerful man in the world.She is first lady of the United States. She is Jackie Kennedy reprise. The whole world is at her beck and call. If that is "frosty" send me a bag of ice.
Why is everyone, from Maureen Dowd to the umpteen commenters who are angry with Maureen, still droning on about Hillary?
Facts: She lost. Trump won. It's over. Debating whether she was a flawed candidate or done in by James Comey and Bernie supporters who wouldn't turn out for her, is a useless exercise at this point.
Similarly, debating whether Melania "bested" Donald is also a waste of time. Melania had to know what Trump's issues were before they married. But she wanted to marry a rich guy and he was her best opportunity at the time. Given his history, does anybody, including Melania, really think Stormy Daniels was Trump's only affair? Or even the only woman Michael Cohen paid off for him?
Melania's angry at Trump. She's entitled to be, but don't expect me to feel sorry for her or celebrate her passive aggressiveness. And besides, she voted for Trump when she married him. On the other hand, tens of millions of us got forced into an arranged marriage with the guy.
12
"It’s like ancient Rome where they’re all turning on each other", I read here.
It's eternal recurrence, as Heraclitus was wont to say.
3
Why is media currency being wasted on the woes of the Third iteration of a Trump Wife? He forgot their anniversary(?) He's been outed for male Postpartum-hanky-panky (ur- Depression). She married him; we didn't. She has a lucrative way out. But 65 Million of us aren't able to get a divorce with a hefty pre-nup. We can't even go back to our "Former Name"- America.
10
Enjoyable read Ms. Dowd.
Hindsight has 20/20 vision. Your words had power during the 2016 election. You chose to give Donald endless kitchen passes as you whaled on Secretary Clinton. Now, you appear to be all girl power while still attempting to point the finger at Secretary Clinton.
I was a Bernie supporter but I can still identify the pot calling the kettle black.
20
I have Trump fatigue but what is wrong with his wife? She needs to get rid of that ball and chain.
3
I voted for Trump, I like most of his policies. That being said, he is an awful person and Ms Dowd is on the money with her commentary. Thank you!
1
How odd. Melania Trump is now a more feisty critic of Mr. Trump than Ms. Dowd was during the election. And Dowd for her part still believes the enemy of the people is Sec. Clinton. (She is pretending she did not say the same about President Obama.)
14
Ms Dowd speaks of "fundamental values." Isn't that rich.
3
Always wonder why you take every opportunity to take a shot at Hillary Clinton. You’re as petty and spiteful as DJT. Save it. Bernie wouldn’t have won either. Biden or Bloomberg may have had a shot, but the real culprit is all those bitter Bernie supporters or lazy Democrats that sat out the night and didn’t bother to vote. They are just as much to blame for this mess as the Russians, perhaps more. Don’t let this happen again.
20
Melania is a smart woman and certainly knew what she was getting into when she married this twice divorced guy. I'm sure Hillary knew too what she was marrying into.
The only Roman I can think of comparable to trump is Caligula, though many have started calling trump a cancer on the presidency. A better diagnosis is he is the EBOLA on This Presidency. Cancer is slow and methodical affecting a discrete number of organs - it seems. Ebola is quick, highly infectious, reckless and bloody in its total destruction - much like how this presidency is tearing up our Constitution and our entire nation (all of it), environment and morality. All with the help of what should be the country's immune system - Congress. Republicans are now allied with the Ebola presidency.
5
Melania may have been able to explain away in her head the Hollywood Access tapes; the Stormy Daniels payoff not so much. She's been humiliated - before the World. Nothing would energize the "Men Too" movement more than Melania asking for a divorce. You go girl!
2
Oh, irony! During the election campaign, in this column, Trump was more acceptable than Hillary. Now, even mid the chaos of the Trump presidency, this opinion writer still has the long knives out for his opponent. Somehow her not firing a campaign aide is right up there with Trump's infidelities and sexual harassment.
And suddenly, now that he's no longer President, Barack Obama is held up as an example of "class." Right, but that was not at all nthe tone of the Dowd articles on "Barry" during his 8 years in the White House.
Really, Ms. Dowd, make up your mind. You can't have it both ways.
13
Mirror mirror on the wall when o when will Humpty dumpy trumpie fall as bitconnery triumphs, crashes and empty statements bloom in Montclair, I ponder Hadrian's wall !!!
How strange that Ms. Dowd has decided to elevate Melania to the moral high ground in all this, when her "tactics" appear to be as misguided and impulsive as those of her exalted husband.
When Ivana, the "first lady", made this memorable pun while hawking her book a few months ago, Melania, in a fit of pique, took the opportunity to stupidly humiliate the former Mrs. Trump, and now, having launched a thinly disguised display of marital revenge, goes off in a huff yet again.
Though she writes of the honor of being First Lady sans cesse, she clearly hates/fears her position, is constantly forced to accept that the emptiness of her marriage is always on full display; but in her resentment she seems not to feel, like her husband, much obligation to uphold the dignity of her important position.
She has never worked since becoming Trump's wife, clearly never intended to, and obviously resents spending the winters in chilly Washington while she craves the warm waters of Palm Beach.
Divorce the guy and stop the charade - by that you would finally be setting a decent example to the American public!
4
Thank you Maureen.
Whether your conjecture is true or not I like this take on Melania.
My fellow Democrats,
We got our butts kicked and we’ll get them kicked again if we don’t see the few morsels of truth in Ms Dowd’s article.
Hillary would have been so much better in so many ways but you can’t ignore the sleaze she was married to. And you must remember us demonstrating against the WTO in Seattle, don’t you? If we can’t see where Bernie was right on at least a few issues, I fear the Republicans will keep on winning.
1
This interpretation of Melania IS a slight step up from the recent NYT essay trying to present her as a "radical" (snort). But ultimately, I don't care enough for Melania to bother watching her small snubs at her boorish awful husband. I want the whole lot out, lock, stock and barrel. I don't want to have to talk or read about any of them any more, for any reason.
Amended: unless some of them get locked up. I'd love to read about that.
5
I've always been surprised at how much you have given Melania the benefit of the doubt at every turn, despite her marrying and staying with one of the most despicable human beings ever to rise to prominence in the United States. You attribute her campaign against cyber-bullying as "a master stroke" and a "wicked rip" on her husband. Isn't it far more likely that instead of irony, this choice simply represents the cluelessness and total lack of self-awareness of everyone in Trump's orbit? Besides, what has she really done with it? Nothing that I've noticed. She could start with the cyber-bully-in-chief.
4
I am sorry, but you, Ms. Dowd, also had a role in getting the ‘very stable genius’ elected. You couldn’t help yourself and had to train your fire on President Obama and Secretary Clinton. All that venom contributed at some level.
So all of your pronouncements at this point come across as trying to rewrite your own history, too.
12
Love the metaphors - who says Americans aren’t funny!
Melania is a tragic figure, not because she has been humiliated and cheated upon, terrible none of the less. She knows what Trump is, did she really think he would change!? I feel she sold herself out, for the " golden chalice", and look what it cost her, self respect and dignity. Trump is a sneaky rat, but he is not going to get away with his methods and behavior for long. It is just a matter of time, when the predator is caught!
3
Melania wasn't the innocent model from Slovenia. She was an international supermodel and she enjoyed the fast life with twice married and fornicating Donald. Her real preference is to live in the glitter of Trump Towers, see her son off to a posh day school and shop and do lunch with the other Manhattan elite. Most likely Trump will end up like Joe Kennedy holding up from his wheel chair a scrawled message that says "revenge" and Melania will embrace widowhood with a vengeance. Of course Maureen had to drag Hillary into the fray. Counseling and a warning wasn't enough for someone hitting on a subordinate. So what does that say about Hope Hicks ironing Trump's suit with him in it?
7
Enough with "Twitter", I think it would be much more effective to IGNORE TWITTER!!!!) Our leader cannot abide being ignored! Be wiser than he , for a change, and stop playing his game!
2
I thought melania's Election Day wardrobe choice of a white pants suit similar to the one Hillary wore to accept the nomination was interesting, too.
6
Ms. Dowd,
I think you may be too bleak!
Ask your brother how things are going!
He will tell you his truth: "EEEEEverything is GREAT!
3
From the Trump campaign's beginning, Melania Trump has never seemed comfortable to this long-time observer of performing and human behavior. Perhaps, as with many others, she has over the years become more aware
(enlightened). Perhaps like the character Billie Dawn in Garson Kanin's classic comedy "Born Yesterday," she has discovered her true worth -- not in dollars but in common sense. Perhaps she is more than beautiful arm candy. Perhaps she truly loves and cares for her son. A lotta "maybes," maybe, but worth considering. To borrow a bit from Shakespeare: #EtTu, Melania?
Doug Giebel, Big Sandy, Montana
4
1. There are 132 rooms in the White House. Melania should put a lock on one of
the nicer ones, if she hasn't already done so. Security counts.
2. There are five people in this country who could quickly end this country’s suffering and embarrassment under Trump.
They are Melania, Ivanka, Jared, Hope Hicks and Stormy Daniels.
Four of them are women.
They need to get together and hold a press conference.
12
Oh I have missed Maureen these last few weeks. I hope hope hope the blender spins out of control and spits them all out especially DJT.
5
I thought this column was going to be about Melania yet why wasn't I surprised when you–Maureen– inserted several paragraphs to remind us of Hillary's failings and to opine on the latest revelations to further diminish her. Your obsession with the Clintons is past tedious, which reminds me of another person who is always harking back to Hillary. It seems to me that you and Donald have that much in common and it is not a flattering look. Hillary lost for numerous reasons–some her fault, some not, but she has naught to do with the fall from "class to crass." That is on Donald, his enablers, and his supporters, and if folks like you would stop diverting attention back to the Clintons and other obscurations, maybe further descent can be stymied before we reach the abyss.
34
Dear Ms Dowd,
I don’t know why or how you’ve returned to your brilliance and moral center but welcome back. Hope you stay awhile. Your country and its democracy and citizens need you.
2
Not going to lie: I looked up “sartorially”. Thank you making me feel smarter today Mo.
Trump has no regard for his wife Melania, number three, or seemingly his children...except trophie daughter Ivanka, who suits his purposes. This man is truly a narcissist.
6
"How did we drop so far and so fast from class to crass?" you ask. I don't know about you, MD, but I did not fall this far and, unlike you, I do not blame Hillary or "the Democrats" for these dire straits.
32
"No comment" on the boys talking about how legitimate their sympathy for a consort can be, as Socrates et al seem to quibble. Congratulations Maureen Dowd for a brief yet thoughtful opinion column.
Those "whom the gods would destroy they first make mad", seem to be quite a number of readers who, upon reading another of Dowd's columns revealing a penumbra she places over HC, go reflexively nuts defending her from this perceived shoddy past treatment. Well, maybe she has a point to some degree. Maybe if the superdelegates had not been rigged, Bernie would have won it all. It hurts to acknowledge that, to some Democrats. Only those with some tendency toward paranoid delusions can make the case that Maureen had anything to do with Trump getting elected. Now let's move on to the divorce(s) in the future for the Donald.
1
The year 2008 was TEN years ago when ALLEGED incidents of harassment were treated differently. The man was docked pay and ordered to seek counseling as a continued condition of employment. The woman was reassigned.
And lest we invoke the Gilibrand Rule that says all men are equally guilty regardless of circumstances, without further detail by the nation's newspaper of record on this matter, well, there is the wiff, after 10 years, of holding women to different standards than men
There is a rumor, probably false, that Trump had an affair with UN Ambassador Nicky Halley. But the rumor was enough for Haley to reply on a radio show that the story was typical of what happens to strong women who speak out.
Unless your name is Hillary Clinton.
And, if Sanders's message was better, why did Hillary defeat him by 4 million votes among Democrats before she defeated Trump by 3 million votes among all American voters?
And, in two tries, Biden never got above 2% in the primaries.
Dowd would have more credibility if she would stop with the decades old swipes at the Clintons.
37
Tell us what you really think.
1
Trump has lost Maureen Dowd. I thought it would never happen. Can Fox News be far behind? Actually that is easy: no.
6
The fact is that many very radical left leaning people know that Ms. Dowd is the quintessential intellectual elitist that knows nothing and helped get Trimp elected. The poor working class people who voted for him feel so inadequate by this intellectual elitist group and with good reason. Too bad they never could come over to the very left; I guess they don't know that we feel the same thing about these bourgeois intellectuals.
6
Maureen, you're too cool for school, praising Melania while dissing Hillary. Why did Hillary loose and give us the pig? She didn't lose by much. Maybe it was because there were too many super-sophisticates who just couldn't choose between two flawed candidates. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
12
Steven Miller writes his speeches and is a Jew, and HE forget to include Holocaust Remembrance Day in the speecn!
2
Maureen - every single thing this creature thinks and does is because his brain does not function like a normal person. Ha has the worst form of narcissism possible, Malignant Narcissistic Personality Disorder. It's the ONLY story that matters because it explains ALL the others.
Why can't the mainstream media grab onto and run that story and hold on to it until it brings him down? !Instead, we only end up talking about the symptoms of a problem instead of the root cause. Because of his condition, there is literally no worse person in this country to be president than our President!
10
Melania staying in a hotel in DC when the Stormy news broke was the best thing she’s has done as First Lady. She should just move in permanently and that would be a statement unparalleled by ANY past First Ladies.
4
Still can't pass up taking a dig a Democrats in general, and Clinton in particular, can you - even when she is not the subject of your essay...
Tragic thing is, your endless campaign against Clinton helped keep many a Progressive at home on Election Day. Trump's Yuge Victory belongs to you too. Why are you complaining now? You had access to one of the world's greatest Bully Pulpits: an OpEd slot at the New York Times. You squandered it right royally on a One Note Snark Campaign.
Trump is yours. Enjoy the ride!
28
I like Melania!
2
Frosty in Florida knew many years ago what she was getting into marrying THE narcissist. However, becoming First Lady and seeing everything he does and says in print so publicly may have been the last straw. But then....she could have given an ultimatum......”Don’t run, or I will.”
5
This article was great right up to it was once again Hillary's fault Bill had the affair. Hillary is the busiest most powerful being in the Universe. Outstanding that this article was published. Maureen Dowd?
16
How is it that every column that Ms. Dowd writes about politics, no matter what the subject, somehow ends up criticizing the Clintons? Captain Ahab was less obsessive than this.
28
You say he's an embarrassing husband, an embarrassing president, an embarrassing leader of the free world... and I won't (I can't) disagree with you. But what about an embarrassing FATHER? What kind of role model is he for his young son, Barron? That kid -- like all kids his age, and UNlike his mother Melania -- is innocent, really, and he is totally forgotten in all of these discussions and comments. Donald Trump has a lot to atone for, more than he ever can or likely ever will. But as a father he is a loser, an absolute and total loser. Good luck to you, Barron. You're going to need it.
7
We are all, so it seems, falling into a playground for four year old children. Dowd will lead and lessen the fall for the rest of us. Melania will fall too, but she will lead us out. She speaks six languages and had enough empathy and sense to to visit the Holocaust Museum as her weaker half did not. As for Dowd, she can stay in the playground and swing back and forth to her heart's content.
4
But what does it say when editorialists everywhere, just like POTUS, cannot help themselves from taking a cheap shot at Hillary?
Hillary Clinton is no longer running for office. Time to move on. How about that climate change thing?
16
It’s a strange choice — and a tenuous move — to hang such an overarching conclusion on a lede about an unhappy wife. Melania had her comfortable present and her vision for an equally easy future shattered the moment her husband was voted into office. Of course she is unhappy. She may be even suffering from a clinical depression. I almost feel sorry for her. Almost. But her actions have nothing to do with the whackadoodle actions of the POTUS we’re stuck with. She is nothing but a side show. The Donald is a walking, tweeting, blabbering catastrophe.
4
Mean Girl Maureen is back to throwing shade on Secretary Clinton with disingenuous digs. I wish she would just knock it off. Clinton won the Democratic nomination fair and square. She wasn't given anything; Democrats nominated her. She would have won the electoral vote but for Bernie Sanders and his Bots bashing her with false innuendos of corruption, James Comey's phony highly inappropriate late braking email press conference, and Vladimir Putin's hackers and trolls flooding Social Media with fake "news" trashing Clinton and extolling Trump.
Clinton did NOT protect that campaign adviser; he was reprimanded, lost pay, and sent to counseling. The complainer kept her employment with the campaign.
When the NY Times placed Mean Girl Maureen in a position of power with a high profile platform to opine it does not ensure that she will always write to protect other women.
18
Maureen is like Trump, always bringing up Hillary. Enough already, Maureen. Give it a rest, can you not find a different subject to attack? Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell come to mind.
24
FLOTUS, Melania Trump, on the arm of a handsome Marine, I am hoping he was her party favor for sitting through the Inaguration. She definitely deserves one.
Maureen, your last line put into words those that my heart has searched to express.
Trump received 62,984,825 votes, despite his well deserved reputation as a narcissist, racist, misogynist. 62,984,825. OK -- it took a little help from Russians meddling, Citizen's United, Russian oligarch-NRA collusion. But still, 62,984,825.
Does anyone seriously think a large percentage of Trump supporters would change their vote, knowing what is known today? (Remember, a pedophile nearly defeated a moderate, honorable Democrat in Alabama's special election.)
Meanwhile, the Congress that brought you endless Benghazi hearings is off hunting the "Dark State." Finally, name a leader at the national level who will inspire and unit -- Sanders, Biden, Warren, Harris? Seriously?
No, our long national nightmare is just beginning.
10
Why does Hillary have to be pilloried at every turn? Your attack was completely gratuitous. You attacked her all 2016 and contributed to the negative din of criticism. Hillary is not responsible for the male fuckery that surrounds her. Not Bill’s. Not Donald’s. Not the dude in her campaign. She took actions short of firing. She didn’t get elected. Leave her alone.
18
God bless President and Mrs Trump. Love them both ! T20 !!!!!!
1
So to speak. But, Melania ended up at a Holocaust Memorial Service with Trump in Florida today. Makes the escape premise weak.
Really? Maureen, you undermined Hillary Clinton in every way you could. Of course she was not a perfect candidate and had unattractive baggage, but this really was a situation of choosing the better of two evils. Clinton for all her faults was a serious person, someone who worked hard at any job she had, intelligent, intellectually curious, and capable of being President. Of course your part in her loss cannot be quantified, but you surely did not help her. I also have to note that I think this is the first time that you have mentioned President Obama by calling him by his correct first name rather than the disrespectful Barry you always used. And now you acknowledge that he appealed to Americans' better angels. Would that your acid pen and waspishness had not been so evident in columns over the campaign and that you had seen things this way back then. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, isn't it.
14
With everything going on in the White House and Congress, with every debased thing Trump has done and is doing, Ms Dowd thinks the highest and best use of her important column is to attack Hillary. I think Ms. Dowd is the best columnist the Times has, but even I now have to acknowledge that she is pursuing an unending and unseemly personal vendetta against HRC that is undermining the integrity and informative value of her column.
8
I feel so sorry for Melania. Trump has really abused her not to mention their poor son, Barron. Trump is no good. He is no good for anyone. Let this be a lesson to you mothers out there that insist your daughters marry a plastic surgeon or a tax atty, or some such. It is a sentence to misery.
Perhaps the cheap hair dye is finally affecting Miss (and it is Miss, correct?) Dowd's brain cells.
Having come of age on the Continent, I am amused by the neediness of Americans to "like" their politicians, to "want to have a beer" with them.
Clinton had all of the credentials to make an awesome president. So she is insufferable. And? The most effective, but dislikable, leader of the Cold War era was Margaret Thatcher.
In the meantime. the DJIA is exploding, so I have no sympathies with the saps who voted to "make America great again" but have no resource to pay their medical bills.
Grow up, America. Charlie Brown never got to kick the football.
6
Looking at the depravity of Trump and his dysfunctional administration one realizes that gone are the days of morally superior Americans frowning at the decadence of Ancient Rome. It has taken two thousand years but another superpower leader has emerged that makes Caligula look like Mother Theresa.
2
My 2020 Dream Ticket: Bernie & Melania!
"Beauty and the Beast" Goes "Beauty and the Socialist." They'd kill it!
I know, I know, Melania is a naturalized citizen. But I can dream.
In your penultimate closing paragraph regarding "institutions", you conspicuously left off "media", to which the adjectives "corroded and Immoral" apply in all too many, but not all, instances.
I have not had a television for about 20 years... the only thing that I miss is PBS .
We have as a president a man who openly and publicly humiliated and mocked a disabled person, the reporter from The New York Times. I find this incomprehensible.
Does this resonate with anyone?
6
Congratulations, Ms Dowd, it took you more than half way through the column before you remembered you hadn't slammed Hillary Clinton. As the Sondheim song says, "Not a day goes by..." In your case it's not a column goes by.
You gave 45 every by possible during the campaign. Isn't it time you admitted you are complicit and let him have the edge of your poison pen?
9
I bet they don’t have much of a love life. When together, he looks abandoned and forlorn and she looks irked and repelled. Who could blame her for not wanting him near her with his insulting behavior, his fat old man looks featuring his vulgar and weird hair-do, his job incompetency, picking on the weak and watching tv in his bathrobe for much of the day, not to mention his incessant bragging and self-preoccupation.
5
I am one of the few people who thought Bernie Sanders was simply a more colorful Ralph Nader from 2000, and who would have lost in a landslide to pretty much any Republican, and that Hillary, if she had won, would have destroyed the Democratic Party for the next 2 elections. Instead of a coming blue wave, we would be looking at a red wave.
It is not really Hillary's fault, but she has been a right-wing boogeyman (boogeywoman?) for so many decades now, I still shake my head that the DNC thought she was a "good idea." Idiots!
And so that leaves me with a depressing state of mind. I am relieved she lost, and take very, very small solace that the Republican who did was this pathological loser called Donald Trump.
Democrats need fresh people. I would argue, that is an often unmentioned part of why Obama won in 2008. He was a fresh voice. We need more. Clinton, Gore (!!), and even ol' Uncle Joe, need to step back and let a new generation come up. Trump has set the table; if the Dems squander these next two elections by running and talking like politicians from the 90's (or impractical fabulists like Bernie Sanders) they will deserve more defeat.
What happened to the Clinton theme song? "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow... yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone..."?
Be gone, Hillary. Time's up. Let us find new voices.
Trump, Wynn and Weinstein are wise guys. Wanna be Dons like Gotti or Brando in the Godfather. They've got gobs of money but no class. And then there's Mueller a Lincoln like figure who represents the America we want. Melania knew what she was marrying, an amorphous, bottom feeder, scammer. She will dump him eventually.
2
Leftists are so hiippocritical as Bill Clinton did whatever to whoever after having taken the oath of presidency; they were fine with it. The president has done nothing similar during his presidency and that is all that matters.
Here we go again with Hillary bashing from Ms. Dowd,
disguised as something else.
The people to blame for Donald Trump are the people that
voted for him. Period.
6
Brava! The DNC is to blame for this fiasco. Bernie or Joe would have certainly carried the states that should have gone Democrat, and we would not have the Executive branch in the gutter. There aren’t enough spaces allowed in this post to list the reasons why Hillary should have never been anointed. Blaming misogyny is the final insult to our collective intelligence. More white women voted for Trump - so much for the stupid identity politics the Democrats favor as a tactic. Not to worry, their mishandling of the Franken ouster (a travesty) and the government shutdown shows that they are true to form - and again forming that circular firing squad once again. For those who find comfort in consistency, be happy.
209
Not enough space to list reasons that Hillary should have been ousted? Really. I think the main reason was that she is a woman. Misogyny rules with anti-Hillary people.
And as to your post about Bernie. Bernie was an independent. Why would we have allowed him to use the Democrat Party as his launching pad? He had not helped build up the party, and as an outsider, frankly, he was lucky to get into the primary, and only because the Democrats (we Democrats, I should say) allowed him.
And I am tired of people yammering about the DNC. If you are disgusted, get in there and do some of the hard work! Do some work. Don't just talk. Be the change you want to see.
8
To Romeo: I will assume you are a man by your moniker. What I don't get is your comment. Are you being sincere in your analysis or sarcastic? I would like to think you are being sarcastic since the alternative will be for readers like me to be utterly insulted, as a woman first and foremost. Let us get back to the gist of this piece. That is that perhaps we should be empathetic to Melania Trump's situation. This is a woman who is in an unfortunate position..that of being married to the POTUS who happens to be the real "fiasco", a misogynistic, philandering, bigoted, and greedy specimen of a man. The issue is not the DNC or certainly Hillary Clinton. The issue is that the electorate was taken in by this Showman-in-Chief with the full support of a hostile nation which is doing victory dances while watching the demise of morality and ethics in what was once a democracy.
8
Nah. I was a Sanders supporter. Clinton paid her dues and won most of the constituencies and voters in almost every primary over Sanders, despite the thumb the DNC put on the scale. It didn't help that Sanders had little organization, and kept his distance from the DNC while the Clintons paid their dues.
It takes organization and muscle to win these things. Last -minute candidacies have never done well assembling money, muscle and organization. Sanders had heart and authenticity, but lacked these last items.
7
(comment continued.....I hit the wrong button!).
I do hope Melania - a woman I will never consider First Lady because she so obviously does not want to be one and that's ok with me - will leave and take her son as far away from Trump as she can get. Take him to Slovenia for awhile, Melania, get him away from your very sick husband before too much damage is done. I mean, look at his other sons. Run, run as fast as you can. I mean it sincerely. You should leave for your son's sake. And your own. Don't you have enough money?
7
All too true, Maureen. Too true.....
2
Some great lines, Maureen. Good to be reading you again.
"Barack Obama was always calling to our better angels." "How did we drop so far and so fast from class to crass?" This is not the sort of thing you wrote about "Barry" when he was president, is it.
43
I'll the the POTUS one nod: he married way... WAY... above his station.
1
Melania should be flattered to receive your wrath. It's a badge of recognition. Is there anybody who you'd give a pass to? Why don't you try living your life in the public eye. I'd like to see what would be written about you.
1
The author gives Melania way too much credit.
12
Poor Melania, we know how you feel. The whole country is in your position — being controlled by a despicable man who’s trying to manipulate us into believing that he’s more than the two bit bully that he is.
Please help us get rid of this monster . You probably have enough information on him to put an end to this nightmare. You can step out of the trap you are in to become a national treasure.
11
As usual,Hillary Clinton made an appearance in a column about Trump, Melania, their relationship and his utter lack of qualifications for the presidency. It seems that Maureen cannot let Hillary go. There is a sort of fatal attraction taking place here and it is starting to get on my nerves.
Maureen, Hillary at her worst would make a good president. Trump at his best will fail miserably. Give it a rest, will you?
39
[ “It’s like ancient Rome where they’re all turning on each other. McGahn is taking out the long knives to stick Trump in the back. At some point, General Kelly may do the same. Bannon is exiled to the outer walls of the city, where he is collecting wayward Roman soldiers to go back and attack Trump. There are orgies and payoffs and mud wrestling, so beyond anything we’ve experienced anywhere.”]
The real question is if Trump is a Nero or a Caligula?
3
Welcome back Dowd and wow did you just say President Obama whom you always called Barry for eight years was classy ?
It just takes someone to recognize class when they get a crass, would you not agree.
One year ago Hillary lost the election to trump, still you can’t help yourself but to end your column with her , the one who could have been the first female American President.
Did I say welcome back ?
Missed your brilliant columns Dowd !
1
What would happen if the Donald suspects that Melania is doing to her SS detail what he did to Stormy ?
Rumor time.
1
Brilliant!
Let's end this madness in 2020 by electing Tammy Duckworth as our president. Bravery, honesty, and humanity as opposed to the self interested, lying, and money grubbing narcissist we now have in the White House.
4
Maureen may be the only person on earth who is more obsessed with Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump is.
40
Maybe Melania will kick Donald out of the White House and have the locks changed. A win-win for her and the United States of America!
9
I have wondered for years why Ms. Dowd has been permitted to blame Hillary Clinton for everything Ms. Dowd sees as wrong in the world (I know, I know: columnists aren't edited for their thoughts) and it is no surprise that she adds a slam at Mrs. Clinton in an article purportedly about Milania and Donald Trump. I thought I was alone in this thinking, so it makes me happy that there are so many others who see Ms. Dowd this way. Thank you all for making my day.
19
Look at yourself in the mirror Ms. Dowd and see what you have helped to accomplish for our country: the most unqualified and dangerous president ever.
22
Watch Melania closely when the Donald is being interviewed or answering questions...she nearly always looks away when he starts lying...its another Melania tell....she looks away often.
5
Maureen is sanctifying Melania while demonizing Hillary. She even puts Melania's anti-cyberbully campaign in a positive light, without mentioning how that campaign went nowhere. Mrs. Clinton is an accomplished, highly educated woman. Melania is....well, no one really knows what Melania is.
30
M.I.N.O. Marriage In Name Only.
4
Well, we all knew you'd manage to get a dig at Hillary into this column. But the surprise to me is that you've now taken to referring to our previous president as Barack, rather than the "Barry" you called him for years. Missing him much? Me, too. Maybe next election you'll think things through a bit more clearly.
19
Melania will get revenge for what he has done to her, the young son, and Melania's parents who live in The White House. Mueller will drop the bomb and reveal, I believe, criminal acts by the porn star lover that will shock the world which is saying something since we have been shocked daily for what seems like years.
Soon after the bomb is dropped, I think Melania will implement Plan B by leaving and taking up residence near her son's school. Hopefully she will begin dating a black or brown citizen. She won't need the pig's money in that her book, movie, and TV series will break all advance records.
Hopefully all of that will happen and even with the evangelicals siding with Trump (who can ever explain that?) it will drive Trump crazy when he is in bed with his cheeseburger thinking about Melania being with another man.
3
I'll worry about Hillary's sins when she runs for public office again. Meanwhile, we have more important things to attend to.
I could name dozens, but I'll mention just one that keeps slipping under the radar. Remember Puerto Rico! Why don't you take a jaunt down there Maureen. The weather is nice. You could get a dozen columns out of the trip. If you get writer's block, just ask them what they think of Hillary. (Bring plenty of bottled water and batteries.)
11
“Barack Obama was always calling to our better angels.” If I were guessing the author of this sentence, Maureen Dowd’s would be the last name I’d imagine.
16
Well, gosh, yes, you know, Hillary, and um the democrats, and uh emails. Bengazhi!
Please.
The right wing press, the republican leadership spent years and years making their share of the electorate ignorant and frightened frightened.
7
Ewhhhh
756th lady lover friend after two guy friend !!!
ewwhhhh!
A little help from a writer and English teacher. Here, way at the end, was your first sentence:
"When we look in the mirror and try to figure out who we are now, elevating a corporate tax cut over our fundamental values is not going to cut it."
It happens sometimes. Your write all the catty nonsense and then find what you really want to say. But then you cut the unnecessary prattle and start again. The beauty of second drafts is worth exploring.
10
Let's not give Melania too much credit.
4
This column is noteworthy in that as far as I remember, it's the first time Ms. Dowd has referred to President Obama as "Barack," not "Barry," & said something nice about him in the process.
12
Melania should get out now and cop her divorce settlement before the feds move in and drain his resources. If only.... if only we all could get out as easily.
4
‘the kid from Queens was abroad trying to impress the soul-sucking global elites’
Maureen if your against the left, you’re against the neo cons, you’re against the populist racists, you’re against st the pragmatic Clinton’s, you’re against the centrist Obama ‘global elites’, at some point do you wonder why people get cynical and vote in a fool clown when you’re against everything so the court fool is all that’s left?
2
I can't reconcile how Maureen, at the same time lauds Melania for trolling her cheating husband while talking smack about how Hillary handled her cheating husband. Can we just all agree that the men here are the problem and not the women who are handling the mistreatment in their own ways? Maybe Maureen is lucky enough to have never been cheated on, but if so, she is in no position to lecture any woman on how to handle it.
13
We are fans of Maureen Dowd. But, I must say, my wife has been upset since 2009 at how harshly Down judged President Obama and she thought it was because he wasn't as chummy as former President George Bush I.
Dowd seemed to resent how reserved and self protective President Obama was and, we would say he needed to be.
We were shocked that Dowd had so little empathy for the position Obama and his family were in as the first African Americans in the White House.
We can see now the kind of racist violence and media pressure the Obama Family so gracefully and intelligently endured.
9
Gee, no mention of how much it cost us taxpayers for Melania's flight on a government plane for her 28 hour pout in Florida. Or the cost of her frequent use of rooms at the Trump Hotel in DC to escape the bully in the WH, or her frequent solo get-a-way flights to Manhattan. Just divorce him, Melania! Taxpayers will thank you and so will your son.
5
Sorry, Maureen. The Democrats nominated someone extremely qualified to be President. Trump is your choice. You try to slander Hillary again (your favorite pastime) by not describing what the sexual harassment was. It was borish behavior, not forcing anyone to have sex with him. So, he was punished in accordance with what he did. Trying to make it seem as though Hillary condones sexual harassment is ludicrous. But then, so are you.
13
Well this is what you wanted sugar pie ... with your bragging about the embarrassment taking your phone calls and your great conversations. Maybe you finally wised up ...
3
I'm done with Dowd. Somehow, even if she is writing about the weather, she has to get in her digs about Hillary Clinton.
Maureen Dowd and George Will have one thing in common. They have been around far too long and are no longer relevant.
13
Hey Mo
Your cozying up to Trump the celebrity and bashing the Clintons was a contributing factor to this disgrace of a President.
How about a mea culpa?
7
Yeah, Maureen...because you are a paragon of virtue and ethical integrity.
What even is this drama queen doomsday scenario? Bizarre.
The more the media obsesses over every nanosecond in the life of Trump, the more we are distracted from far more important things.
Good lord, what has happened to your column?
4
Aren't we just a wee bit sanctimonious?
When you don't have a job you are willing to overlook details of someone's
personal life. He may be a pig but who cares when our people can put a secure roof over their head and shoes on their kids. But you wouldn't know anything about that, now would you. Consider using your bully pulpit to be a positive force for the good of the country not a destroyer. I think Melania has reason to be irritated but that issue belongs in her marital bedroom not ours.
PS...I am no idiot savant. Ivy undergrad and top tier law school JD when women had to elbow their way through the male gauntlet.
Would YOU willingly touch Him ??? For any reason???
4
Will Melania divorce POTUS while he is in office?
How much is Donald paying her not to do this?
1
You have to be "tough" to be married to a nonstop liar and cheater.
1
Thirty years from now, as the rising waters of climate change force New Yorkers to flee for higher ground, a nonagenarian Maureen Dowd can still be relied upon to blame the Clintons. "It all could have been avoided," she will lecture, much like the entitled Democrats she metronomically derides, "if you hadn't voted for a flawed feminist who stayed married to her husband, Bill Clinton."
9
I never quite get why Maureen Dowd is so fixated on gratuitously attacking Hillary in season and out. It seems very strange that she blames Hillary for Bill's waywardness with women, gives Trump many passes through the campaign season and only later comes down hard on him, and keeps harping on whatever mistakes she sees in Hillary's campaign. She clearly seems to favor an offended woman's acting out against her role than a qualified woman seeking to be president.
9
My fervent hope is that Mrs. Trump went to Florida to clean out her closets and will then fly with Barron directly to NYC to meet with a divorce lawyer.
3
Melania.
Please.
1
Dowd finally had something nice to say about Obama but it took a comparison with Trump to do it. Remember when the flirt tantalized some readers, while infuriating others by sharing her cozy telephone chats with The Candidate. Maureen is a fickle flirt; look at her now. Can't wait until Hilary get a compliment after Trump fires Mueller. nukes North Korea or takes down his pants next time he's face to face with Merkel.
11
It's Hillary's fault say the person who was pining for Donnie to swoop in and entertain her when she found herself all alone at a 4 star Paris restaurant.
Now the realization that Donnie is a pig. Tough choices.
I have yet to hear you say he should resign and go home to Queens.
9
Trump is a physically repugnant old man. It requires a lot of money to make him desirable to women. If he didn't have money she would be elsewhere. Body language says there is no love there. Her son doesn't even look at him fondly. Sad life she has to live.
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