The name’s Melania, Melania Trump

In her favorite room of the White House, the Yellow Oval room, stands Melania, in a black Dolce & Gabbana pantsuit. She’s less Barbara Bush, more the first female James Bond. 

Mrs. Trump’s second official portrait appears to be a deliberate homage to the promo photograph for Diamonds Are Forever, which depicted Sean Connery standing firm with an American flag rippling behind him. It is, according to Caleb Daniels, author of Licensed Troubleshooter: The Guns of James Bond: “a clear celebration of the work of Terry O’Neill, who captured portraits in this style for Connery and Brosnan.’

When Melania’s portrait was released, Daniels says he had to look twice. “Her peak lapels and open collar are stylistically reminiscent of Brosnan’s Bond in Tomorrow Never Dies, but the clearest similarities are the use of soft black and white, a glass table with a reflective surface and a deep background.”

He adds that, “one major improvement for the First Lady’s shot are her hands, splayed open on the table and far lighter in presence than either Bond actors, who both had their knuckles on the table which gave it a more masculine look.”

The original Connery picture helped established the classic Bond aesthetic. Now, it’s how the First Lady of the United States is officially presenting herself. 

Which is to say, stylishly, and with a sense of mischief that she is not usually thought to possess. How could it not be intentional?

In her first week of appearances, moreover, Melania 2.0 appears to be toying with similar themes. She channelled Maverick from Top Gun for her trip to North Carolina and LA. With her already infamous inauguration hat, which hung down over her gaze, she evoked the old Mad magazine comic Spy vs. Spy with her infamous inauguration hat.

It’s clear that, after mostly shying away from the spotlight in her husband’s first term, and getting annihilated in the press as a result, this time Melania is casting herself as both the hero and the leading lady. Which is how we ended up with an official government portrait that looks, more than any before it, so fit to be autographed. 

As she did the first time around for her 2017 portrait, Melania flew in her trusted Belgian photographer and long-time friend, Regine Mahaux, from her home in Paris. This time, the First Lady wanted something different from her first official portrait as FLOTUS, when we saw a smiling Melania with soft eyes, aggressive photo editing and a huge rock on her finger, clueless about what the next four yours would entail.

“She is very involved creatively,” Mahaux tells me. “And as an artist it’s very rewarding.” She adds that the task bestowed on her was to “capture not just her image, but the essence of who she is.” Reviews so far are mixed. Online commentators have compared the portrait to something a tech CEO would post on LinkedIn. Others have called it ‘Apprenticecore,’ because of its similarity to her husband’s famous pose on the show. 

In the first Trump term, Melania’s design choices often acted as a Rorschach test for the deep and easily triggered anxieties of the media. Her “blood red” Christmas trees were red and sinister. Her old-fashioned safari chic on a trip to Africa was colonialist. The jacket she wore to a migrant detention centre — emblazoned with the message “I don’t really care, do you?” – was a coded message to the president’s far-right followers.  

That was all hysteria, of course. Yet Melania 1.0’s style was at times a little jejune for a woman so prominent in the public eye. Melania 2.0 appears to have evolved into something more dynamic and purposeful. You can still hate her and pretend she is not stylish and beautiful. You can continue to see what she is doing and how she presents herself as a coded message of hate. Or, you could see her as she actually is, and admit you were wrong. She is having fun, and she looks great.