Nia-Malika Henderson, Columnist

Melania Trump Had a Very Bad Year

December 28, 2025 at 10:00 PM GMT+9

Nia-Malika Henderson is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former senior political reporter for CNN and the Washington Post, she has covered politics and campaigns for almost two decades.

This official portrait set the tone. — This official portrait set the tone.
Photographer: Régine Mahaux/The White House

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First Lady Melania Trump’s official White House portrait says it all. Pictured in a black pantsuit and white collared shirt, she stands at the head of a table, as if in a boardroom ready to make a deal. And sure enough, even before she moved back into the (RIP) East Wing, she had inked a $40 million deal for a documentary about her life.

“What I’m [doing], what kind of responsibilities I have — people, they don’t really know,” she said on Fox News early in 2025 describing the documentary. “It’s day to day, from transition team to moving to the White House, packing, establishing my team, the first lady office, moving into the White House, what it takes to make the residence your home, to hire the people that you need.”