Melania Trump: A power-dressing counterweight and 'competition'? - USA Today

The first lady’s East Wing office may have been demolished but that doesn’t mean she’s ceding power.

During her second turn as first lady, Melania Trump has made it clear that she marches to her own beat, both in the way she dresses and the way she conducts business.

Dressed in a black Dolce & Gabbana pantsuit and a white cotton Givenchy blouse with an ascot, she hosted an event for her Fostering the Future Together initiative Sept. 15 in New York, attended by the spouses of 57 world leaders.

Held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the event was covered by reporters from outlets including CNN and Politico. Just days earlier, on Sept. 18, President Donald Trump had banned CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House.

The president even called out a reporter from CNN when she showed up to cover him at the U.N., telling CNN's Kaitlan Collins, "You shouldn't be here covering me."

Was the first lady portraying herself as a counterweight to her husband? In this relationship, she also wears the pants, her actions and her sartorial choices seem to suggest.

The following day, the first lady rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, as she launched IMPERIA, a networking forum and economic initiative for female CEOs and C-suite leaders.

This was her third time ringing the opening bell – one more time than her husband. But who's keeping score?

Starting with her official portrait, a dark, single-breasted Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo jacket with satin lapels over a crisp white button-up shirt, many of her outfits in her second innings as first lady have featured menswear-inspired power suits. In March, she wore a tan three-piece pantsuit with a black tie when she made a trip to Capitol Hill as she championed the Take It Down Act, which aims to protect victims of deepfakes and revenge pornography.  When her husband signed the bill into law at the Rose Garden, the first lady co-signed the document.

The following month, in a move that caught even the president by surprise, the first lady read out a statement from the White House denying ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and decrying “fake images” of herself. She was dressed in a grey double-breasted Prada skirt suit — the same outfit she wore as she co-signed the Take It Down Act.

Standing at the lectern April 9, the first lady demanded that “lies” linking her to Epstein stop immediately and declared that she was not “Epstein’s victim.”

If the sartorial choice was meant to communicate a message, it appeared to be this: She may not be a victim of Epstein’s, but she is a victim of social media.

The day after she rang the opening bell at NYSE, the first lady was dressed in a belted blue pantsuit as she hosted the Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan for tea and a trip to the National Archives.

In a move that garnered behemoth media attention and bucked tradition, Melania Trump wore pants to the state dinner she was hosting with her husband in honor of the visiting Chinese guests.

She was dressed in a crisp white Saint Laurent shirt with a dramatic bow paired with black Dolce & Gabbana high-waisted brocade pants and Hervé Pierre satin cummerbund while Peng Liyuan wore a long red gown. Trump was outfitted in a black tuxedo with a bowtie and Xi opted for a high-collared black Mao suit.

In August 2025, Melania Trump penned a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin advocating for the return of children affected by the Russia-Ukraine war. The president hand-delivered the letter to Putin during a meeting in Alaska.

So far, the first lady has facilitated the reunification of 34 Ukrainian children with their families through an ongoing humanitarian initiative.

“There is nothing more powerful than reuniting a mother with her child after an extended period of time,” she said in a statement.

Her husband lauded her effort during his speech at the U.N. last month. A few hours later, as she hosted the Fostering the Future Together event, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz suggested she might be in competition for a prize her husband has coveted for a long time.

"I don't know if you're going to be in competition with President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, but we'll see,” he said.

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal.