April 12, 2023

"Melania Trump has always been a cipher. Is Donald Trump’s wife a reserved, apolitical woman who just wants us all to 'Be Best' and leave her alone?"

"Or is the partner of the biggest bully in American politics a nasty schemer herself? While the former First Lady doesn’t say much, we do know she isn’t afraid to publicly swat her husband’s hand away; she doesn’t 'give a fuck about Christmas stuff'; she occasionally offered the president inane political advice; and she wore a jacket featuring an offensive message during a trip to visit child migrants impacted by her husband’s cruel immigration policies. Melania’s response to Donald Trump being arraigned in New York last week on felony charges related to hush money for his alleged mistress Stormy Daniels is similarly confounding."

Writes Margaret Hartmann, in "Really Don’t Understand This Melania Trump News, Do U?" (NY Magazine).

Apparently, she's the one who doesn't need you to understand. You can understand that. The "offensive message" on the jacket — "I Really Don’t Care Do U?" — always made sense. Her public-facing position is that she doesn't care what you think, and she's challenging you to look at yourself and ask yourself if you care.

Does the New York Magazine writer actually care what the private person, Melania Trump, is really like? Would any baring of her soul ever elicit empathy from this writer? I suspect Melania's strongest position is endlessly to confound these people who want to know more so they could express their contempt more cruelly.

"Cipher" is the wrong word (unless you don't mean to hide your contempt). A cipher is "A person who fills a place, but is of no importance or worth, a nonentity, a 'mere nothing'" (according to the OED).

57 comments:

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Mind reading hate-fulled leftist writer in NY says what?

Dave Begley said...

"Dr." Jill Biden has always been known to us. She pushed her senile husband to run for President and she's enjoying every minute.

How about an essay about this woman?

Enigma said...

Don't dwell on the logic because there isn't any. This is a feel-good puff-piece to fill space in a hard left publication. They can't go a day without finding a way to feel superior to those outside the clique.

Kay said...

Great headline, but that’s about it. I say leave her out of this.

Paddy O said...

"Or is the partner of the biggest bully in American politics"

Melania is a partner with Nancy Pelosi?

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Melania was first Lady - like it or not. Like her or not.

The entire childish collective asshole fem-o-left media refused to acknowledge Melania's existence. They left her off of magazine covers, they dished shit about her... they treated her like crap. Leftist women treated Melania like crap. These are the same leftist women who have no problem with a penis in all women's locker rooms. These are the same leftist women who are OK with a rage-filled lunatic trans shooting nine year old children at a Christian School. You know- because icky Christians. ... they musta deserved it.

Anna Wintour(D) - may she grow old and rot - quickly.

Lurker21 said...

It may be different in England, but that's not the main definition in the free online dictionary I use. "Cipher" meaning "zero" may be more common in places where "zero" begins with "zed."

Politics reduces people to a type and an antitype. There's the positive image supporters have and the opposite image opponents have. Politicians expect that as part of the job and even welcome it, but one can understand why spouses might want to avoid being reduced and oversimplified in that way. If the media support the president the White House welcomes, contributes, even creates a positive image for the first lady. If the press doesn't like the president, it's understandable that the first lady might want to escape processing by the image makers, and bless Melania for not even trying to play the imagemaking game.

rhhardin said...

Melania's significance is breasts, like Michelle's is a ghetto grudge.

Kate said...

Melania made it clear from the beginning she never wanted to be First Lady. (I wish the press had appreciated how unique that was.) She did her duty, and then stepped back. When Trump was running she gave one naive interview that eviscerated her and dug into her parents, and that was it. Give her credit for being a fast learner and knowing her own mind.

Jamie said...

I think "enigma" would have worked, but yes, "cipher" is just dismissive.

rehajm said...

The "offensive message" on the jacket — "I Really Don’t Care Do U?" — always made sense.

Hooray...

rehajm said...

By women, for women, these stories are. The intent is not understanding but to find the thing to say to make Trump go away.

Jersey Fled said...

"She occasionally offered the president inane political advice; and she wore a jacket featuring an offensive message during a trip to visit children impacted by her husband's cruel immigration policies."

When I was teaching a section on critical thinking, I always told my students to look for the adjectives first. It's a tipoff as to the writer's biases and and indicator of whether we are reading fact or opinion.

Not much doubt here.

rehajm said...

I've never understood how people like this Margaret can dish like this while bitterly clinging to people like the Clintons. The same people are ones telling you do drop him like hot rock for his glance at the woman in the checkout aisle while he was trying to avoid a collision...

Eva Marie said...

This is a story written by a senior editor at New York Magazine who has read a People magazine article and a New York Post article and is reporting to her readers that she doesn’t know which one to believe? How absurd is this?

Mark O said...

This just in: The Rich Are Different.

jim said...

She is remarkably easy to understand. She probably thought Trump was a faintly normal rich jerk. She was wrong, and now her only viable strategy is to play it out, keep her nose clean, and appropriate as much as she can.

She would would have been much better off if the jerk had stayed in playpens.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"Or is the partner of the biggest bully in American politics..."

Here. We go. Again.

baghdadbob said...

If Melania were as objectively beautiful as, say, Michelle Obama, maybe she too would have appeared on the cover of hundreds of Women's Magazines, as Obama did.

However, the trained eyes of fashion editors and photographers correctly determined that Melania's homely appearance was unworthy of a single cover (although Guns & Ammo might have been an exception).

I'm glad we have these gatekeepers to protect us from exposure to unattractive women.

Fred Drinkwater said...

I tripped over "biggest bully in American politics" I thought, what does Schumer have to do with this?

Leland said...

Seems like the cipher here is Margaret Hartmann.

On Stormy Daniels, it has always been interesting that the story the NDA covers is simply taken as truth. It doesn’t matter her lawyer has a track record of setting up women to make false accusations of sex against political figures. It doesn’t matter that she has lost her deformation case. It doesn’t matter that paying off extortion similar to this is often done by high profile and financially capable people, because a $130,000 payoff is cheaper than the legal fees of fighting it in court, as Daniels deformation (and that her former lawyer found it lucrative) proves.

Millions of people also assumed the Russian Dossier was true and should feel foolish about making that assumption. I suspect Melania knows the truth better than all these third parties and her behavior is rational.

iowan2 said...

The left has made an art out of sliming their political foes for things they don't say, and assigning motives without providing evidence.
Hates Christmas? How meaningless can this writer get? (But next month some other leftist writer will use this article as proof she hates Christmas.

Rusty said...

I'm sure this is important news to someone.

John henry said...

his alleged mistress

At least they got the "alleged" in there.

But does paying a whore for sex, once, make her a "mistress"? Mistress seems to connotate an ongoing relationship.

And let's remember that both Daniels and Trump have denied that sex ever occurred.

John Henry

Elliott A. said...

She lost my interest at "cruel immigration policies"

jim said...

What's she supposed to do, divorce the jerk? That would not be pretty, would it?

RNB said...

"Does the 'New York Magazine' writer actually care what the private person, Melania Trump, is really like?" No, but Melania Trump makes a convenient cudgel with which to beat Donald Trump.

n.n said...

A fascist State is acutely phobic of individual dignity and agency.

Drago said...

jim: "She is remarkably easy to understand. She probably thought Trump was a faintly normal rich jerk. She was wrong, and now her only viable strategy is to play it out, keep her nose clean, and appropriate as much as she can."

LOL

jim claims Melania is "remarkably easy to understand" and then immediately mindreads/projects his thoughts into her head to complete his "analysis" of her thoughts/actions.

How perfectly 2023 leftist.

Readering said...

As long as she and The Donald are married she has secret service protection from being shot by one of the stepkids. It happens sometimes.

alanc709 said...

Melania is prettier, but Michelle has a bigger dick

Mr. T. said...

Stopped reading when it said NY Mag.

These liars and frauds STILL think that Rolling Stone didn't defame UVa students of rape.

Earnest Prole said...

By all indications Melania wishes to be a civilian.

boatbuilder said...

Seems like more of the ongoing defensive reaction of the Dem cheerleaders to the "endless" mockery of Jill Biden for deftly managing to turn the traditional and mostly inocuous invitation of the winning college basketball team to the White House into a sad and divisive squabble about race.

Krumhorn said...

I can't believe a leftie writer for a leftie rag wrote that. How is this possible? SO out of character!

- Krumhorn

TeaBagHag said...

Vapid, shallow, money grubbing, trophy wife.
I think we totally get her.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Judgement first. Data after.

Rory said...

1. Refuse to cover someone
2. Note the lack of coverage
3. Announce that the person is unworthy of coverage

Humperdink said...

"Biggest bully in American politics."????

The guy has been persecuted since since he and his cipher came down the escalator. I used to think these clowns lacked self awareness, but this is just unadulterated lying.

William50 said...

We, my wife and I, regard Melania as one of the classiest 1st ladies in our life time ( both in our 70's). She never seemed, in our opinion, to seek the spotlight unlike Ms Obama and was always very gracious. We cannot remember her saying a nasty thing about anyone. In our opinion, the United States could use more 1st ladies like her.

Joe Smith said...

What a bunch of leftist drivel.

'Cruel immigration policies...'

Which ones are those?

The ones where he kept illegal aliens in Obama/Biden-built cages?

The ones where he tried to keep gang members and rapists out of the country?

Got it.

Quaestor said...

"I think 'enigma' would have worked, but yes, 'cipher' is just dismissive."

Though I sincerely doubt a writer for NY Magazine would have the intellectual depth to appreciate the many nuances of cipher, there is a technical meaning of the term that is closer to the idea of an enigma than the simpleminded insult intended by Margaret Hartmann.

In cryptography, the science of hidden information, there are two broad categories of hidden or obscured texts -- codes and ciphers. People often confuse the two under the term codes, but they are highly distinct, with ciphers being much more common and strategically useful. Briefly, codes operate by replacing the literal meanings of common words or phrases with prearranged private meanings.

For example, the message Go to point XRAY and execute PLAN R could be a code between two parties who both understand the private meanings of XRAY and PLAN R. Codes are frequently very secure because there need not be any system of alternative meanings, such as a codebook subject to theft or copying, though without such a cross-referencing document, codes have virtually no utility in the real world. However, if the recipient of the message does not know the private meaning of XRAY or PLAN R, the message is effectively nonsense. This is why ciphers, particularly mechanically or electronically generated encipherments, have been far more important than codes for over a century. Ciphers function by substituting one symbol, such as a Latin letter or a Chinese logogram with another symbol from within the same symbolic system. The substitution scheme always follows the same algorithm, thereby eliminating the chief weakness of codes. Since algorithms are executable by machines, using ciphers effectively generally amounts to simple machine configuration rather than cross-referencing a code term like XRAY and its plaintext meaning in a codebook. Interestingly, ENIGMA was the tradename of an electro-mechanical encipherment machine adopted and modified by the German Wehrmacht in WWII. They thought its output was completely secure. It wasn't.

Here's a simple cipher the commenters and the blogster herself can solve:
ZKSGNTRD QTMR DUDQX LNQMIMF

wendybar said...

Melania had more class in her pinky finger, than "For the first time in her life, proud of America"...Obama who looks down on us lowly middle class people.

farmgirl said...

They’ll go after her to get at him sideways.
I’ve always admired Melania b/c she’s warm and cool at the same time. She speaks w/her eyes. She knows she’s beautiful, but is truly so when she’s speaking to children.

Trump hit the jackpot. It took him a while- they’re a great power couple.

I’ve never heard anyone in MSM compliment Melania.
Small minds.

Be best.
America 1st…

Wince said...

Already mentioned the "Trump is like Jesus" sketch on last week's SNL, but here's a funny spoof on the need for Trump Hate Porn.

Michael K said...

jim claims Melania is "remarkably easy to understand" and then immediately mindreads/projects his thoughts into her head to complete his "analysis" of her thoughts/actions.

How perfectly 2023 leftist.


I guess jim dropped the 1234 addition to his handle.

Lem Vibe Bandit said...

Didn't know cipher meant that. When I was younger a refrain, I heard said to me more times than I care to remember: "tu ta en el mundo pa que haiga ma jente" (you are here just so that there are more people around).

That goes in my resentments list.

JAORE said...

If M had been marred to a democrat she'd have been Jackie O 2.0. Lauded for beauty, fashion sense and intelligence (how many languages do you speak?).

Instead we get Michelle the broad shouldered, perpetually bare armed and Jill of the sofa covers.

mikee said...

The offensive message on her jacket was directed at the press, and she meant it, and everyone knows that and understands it. This media lying should be called "plastic turkey" after GWBush's famous trip to see troops in Iraq, and the press fixation on lying about his meal with troops there.

Don't plastic turkey Melania's visual insult to the lying press.

Jim at said...

Vapid, shallow, money grubbing, trophy wife.

An international supermodel who speaks four, five languages?

I can see why you're jealous.

Drago said...

readering: "As long as she and The Donald are married she has secret service protection from being shot by one of the stepkids. It happens sometimes."

The small sad mind of a leftist.

Tina Trent said...

Eastern European women have different priorities.

n.n said...

[Melania] speaks w/her eyes.

2nu - This Is Ponderous

A girl who could talk with her eyes...

Do you see what I am saying.


This is ponderous.

Quaestor said...

"I think we totally get her."

TeaBagHag, does your brain ever rebel? I mean, the heartless way you treat it... If your brain was a duck, Ingrid Newkirk would hire someone to set fire to you.

Crazy World said...

Love the Trumps. Chuck seems to be certifiably insane in that other post. Be best.

wendybar said...

TeaBagHag said...
Vapid, shallow, money grubbing, trophy wife.
I think we totally get her.

4/12/23, 1:20 PM

You shouldn't talk about Jill Biden like that.

Known Unknown said...

"Or is the partner of the biggest bully in American politics..."

Melania was married to Lyndon Baines Johnson? You learn something new every day.