President Donald Trump walks with first lady Melania Trump to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on Aug. 29. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Melania's stiletto sideshow As the first lady departed to see storm fallout in Texas, Twitter erupted with critiques of her shoe choice. 
 
 Melania Trump, the former model and reluctant first lady, often lets her fashion choices do the talking for her. 
 
 Since her belated move into the White House in June, Melania Trump hasn’t yet announced an issue, or even an area of interest, for which she plans to advocate from her powerful platform. She has made few public speeches or statements, beyond introductions at campaign rallies she attends with her husband. But she’s dutifully stepped into the silent role of enhancing her husband by appearing impeccably and appropriately dressed by his side. 
 
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 “Classy and conservative,” were the reviews from the local Saudi Arabian press after the first lady landed in Riyadh last spring dressed in a black, belted jumpsuit. The deep red Christian Dior “bar suit” she wore to visit Paris for Bastille Day in July was deemed to be a culturally appropriate choice highlighting an icon of French fashion. 
 
 But on Tuesday, she appeared to put the wrong foot forward when she boarded Marine One, en route to visit emergency responders in hurricane-ravaged Texas, wearing towering black snakeskin stilettos. 
 
 The emblematic first image of the first lady heading off to visit a hurricane in heels — a moment that the president has seized on as an opportunity to project strength and show off decisive leadership — instead became another symbol of a White House that can often seem out of touch. 
 
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 Lisa Kline, who worked as a stylist to vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin during the 2008 election, said in an interview she thought “it was a mistake in the message it relays. A lot of eyes were on them. They’re going to a devastated area. She should be dressed accordingly.” 
 
 The heels at least temporarily stole the spotlight from a gloomy president who aides said has been buoyed by what he sees, so far, as an effective coordinated response to a record-breaking storm. 
 
 “Tan suit looks pretty good today, doesn’t it?” Valerie Jarrett, a former top adviser to President Barack Obama, tweeted, referring to the Republican outcry over Obama’s summer look to discuss serious national security issues at a news conference in 2014. 
 
 Former first lady Michelle Obama also created her own fashion scandal in 2009, when she wore a pair of $540 Lanvin sneakers to volunteer at a food bank in Washington. 
 
 “Small gestures send big messages,” journalist Jamil Smith wrote on Twitter, regarding the first lady’s shoe choice. “It isn’t that they keep getting it wrong. They don’t care about getting it right.” 
 
 On board Air Force One to Corpus Christi, as the picture of the delicate heels ricocheted across the Internet, Melania Trump changed into a pair of bright, white sneakers, which looked fresh out of the box. 
 
 She wasn’t the only female member of the Trump delegation wearing footwear that raised eyebrows — two other women were spotted on Air Force One wearing pumps and suede heels. 
 
 The debate over the first lady’s shoes wasn’t an isolated fashion faux pas for the women who act as the face of the Trump administration. 
 
 A week after her father’s inauguration in January, Ivanka Trump posted a picture of herself wearing a $5,000 silver Carolina Herrera gown — the same night protests erupted at airports across the country over Trump’s executive order banning refugees from majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States. 
 
 People close to the first daughter said at the time she felt “terrible” about the dissonance between the image projected from her Kalorama mansion and the painful photographs of refugees being detained at international airports. But the picture still lives on her public Instagram account, where it has been applauded with more than 266,000 “likes.” 
 
 Louise Linton, the wife of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, seemed to relish her distance from the average, middle-class American woman when she posted a Jackie O.-inspired snap of herself on Instagram, while accompanying her husband on a “day trip” to Kentucky earlier this month aboard a government plane. In the photo, Linton tagged all of the designer labels she was sporting, including her Hermes scarf and her Valentino rockstud heels. 
 
 She then lashed out with snide vitriol at a mother of three from Oregon who expressed distaste at her public post. An apology came later, via a crisis-managing publicist, in which Linton called the post and her comments “highly insensitive.” 
 
 There was no acknowledgment from the White House that the first lady’s storm attire was at all off-key. Instead, her staff blamed the media for creating a “sad” side circus to an otherwise somber day. 
 
 “It’s sad that we have an active and ongoing natural disaster in Texas,” said Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for the first lady, “and people are worried about her shoes.” 
 
 Later Tuesday, the first lady’s office released a statement on the storm. “I want to be able to offer my help and support in the most productive way possible, not through just words, but also action,” the first lady said. “What I found to be the most profound during the visit was not only the strength and resilience of the people of Texas, but the compassion and sense of community that has taken over the state. My thoughts and prayers continue to be with the people of Texas and Louisiana.” ||||| A lot has been made of Melania Trump’s body language on her husband’s on-going overseas trip. Twice she has appeared to swat away the president’s attempts to hold her hand in what were either efforts at culturally appropriate decorum or blatant rejections of his advances. No matter her intent, the video clips sent the Internet into a tizzy. 
 
 But beyond those viral moments, the first lady has, at times, looked unenthusiastic if not downright displeased as the first couple has been paraded through diplomatic protocol and photo-ops in Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Rome. Her look is a stark departure from first ladies of the past, who, generally, have displayed permanent smiles while accompanying their husbands at public events. 
 
 No matter what you think of Melania Trump or her husband’s politics, there is a subtle strength in her stone-faced expression during these command performances. As the Washington Post‘s Robin Givhan puts it: 
 
 For a woman who was once a model, who ostensibly is practiced in the art of nonverbal communication, the willingness to forgo a grin seems less like an accident and more like the tiniest declaration of personal control and rebellion. She is here for you, but she is not going to perform for you. 
 
 In a way, Melania Trump’s countenance embodies the burden of being first lady—a ceremonial role, based largely on appearances, that is hoisted on a woman only because of her relationship to a powerful man. In calling for the office of first lady to be abolished in November, Politico‘s Jack Shafer argued that by giving the president’s wife a federal budget and nonstop press coverage, “we endorse a pernicious kind of neo-nepotism that says, pay special attention to the person not because she’s earned it or is inherently worthy of our notice but because of who she’s related to by marriage.” 
 
 But at a more fundamental level, Melania Trump’s facial expression is an affront to a society that still demands that women—rather than determine their own emotional state—always smile instead. 
 
 A version of this story first appeared in Fortune’s World’s Most Powerful Women newsletter. Subscribe here. ||||| Maybe Melania Trump, a woman who was once photographed for Vanity Fair forking a bowl of expensive necklaces as though they were spaghetti noodles, has more in common with the average American than we initially thought. Like the average American, it appears that she too, cannot stand her husband. 
 
 This afternoon in Tel Aviv, President Donald Trump reached for his wife’s hand. Rather than indulge him with human touch, the sort of human touch regular married people who like each other might engage in, the reluctant First Lady swatted his hand away. This wasn’t done backstage before an event, or in the privacy of a place where it was safe to assume there weren’t any cameras. No, Melania has grown bolder in her push to telegraph her disdain for Donald. She did it as she and her husband joined Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife in a photo op. She did it in front of a veritable United Nations of news cameras. She did it so the whole world could see. She doesn’t care if he’s embarrassed, and it completely rules. 
 
 And the whole world did see; within minutes, the moment had gone viral. With that swat, Melania had temporarily sated the public’s bottomless appetite to see President Trump denied what he wants in its most viscerally appealing manifestation. Trump wanted his wife to accept him, to join him in acting like a normal human couple for the cameras instead of an orb-fondling wannabe despot. Seeing tweets about a judge striking down an immigration ban, or watching a Trump surrogate make an ass of themselves on cable news just doesn’t taste as delicious to a victory-starved liberal as the image of a woman slapping Trump’s hand away. For the millions who continue to be horrified by the Trump era, there’s nothing more zeitgeisty in 2017 than Trump schadenfreude porn. And there’s nobody more well-positioned to deliver it than our Ice Queen First Lady. 
 
 This isn’t the first time Melania has denied Donald’s undersized hands the pleasure of human touch. In January, when the couple arrived in Washington for his inauguration, Donald tried to hold his wife’s hand just before completing the very scary task of going down a flight of stairs. Melania was not having it. 
 
 That move kicked off an inauguration weekend that, told from Melania’s perspective, would read like a novel about a tragically trapped princess, or a live-action Pepe Le Pew cartoon starring Melania as the cat. When the couple danced, Melania leaned away rigidly. In every public appearance, the impeccably dressed First Lady wore a veil of despair. Her husband often seemed to forget that she existed. When they kissed, they did not touch. Melania acted like a mascot of left-wing despair. 
 
 In the ensuing weeks, Melania’s public disdain for her husband only intensified. An US Weekly cover story declared that she was “secretly miserable” as First Lady, an account I must dispute since it’s always been obvious that she’s miserable. She skipped out on typical first lady duties when the prime minister of Japan visited. And a couple of weeks ago, whoever manages her verified Twitter account favorited a Tweet about how alienated the Trumps seem from each other. 
 
 All of this is occurring as Trump’s daughter Ivanka performs most of the non-romantic duties of First Lady, delivering speeches and posing for photos. In recent interviews, Ivanka’s even started putting on a strange Jackie O affect. If I were Melania, I’d find the whole thing irksome. 
 
 Critics will point out that Melania, of course, is no hero, and no saint. She’s the one who married Donald, and she can leave whenever she gets sick of living in a golden box in the sky and feeling sorry for herself. There are plenty of women whose lives are much more worse off thanks to the president, and plenty more whose lives would be worse off if not for the saving grace of checks and balances. But her public acting out provides a nice bit of levity for a time that often feels devoid of it; a lot of women would love the opportunity to swat Trump’s hand away. 
 
 Melania’s swats also serve to expose another Trump lie: when you’re a star, they don’t always let you do it. ||||| Donald and Melania Trump’s relationship has hit the headlines over the past week for all the wrong reasons; a lack of hand holding, weird body language and the resurfacing of the ‘Free Melania’ hashtag. 
 
 But the couple has a long history of strange body language and awkward encounters that have left people speculating about how much the pair actually like one another. 
 
 Melania's face while dancing with Trump reminds me of the first time I went to the gynecologist pic.twitter.com/ilgyUWH3aC — Sofiya Alexandra (@TheSofiya) January 21, 2017 
 
 One awkward moment between the pair prompted social media users to start the hashtag #FreeMelania, after video from the inauguration showed Melania’s face falling after Donald turned round to speak to her. 
 
 The inauguration prompted several widely shared examples of Donald and Melania’s seemingly unusual behavior, with Donald appearing to leave his wife outside the White House as he marched in—leaving Barack and Michelle Obama to escort the incoming first lady inside. 
 
 Later, during the pair appeared extremely awkward during their inaugural dance as president and first lady at the Liberty Inaugural Ball—in stark contrast to the Obamas’ inaugural dance in 2009. 
 
 Perhaps this could be forgiven based on the gravity of the occasion—particularly given the rumors Melania was not keen to assume the role of first lady despite her husband’s presidential ambitions—but their awkwardness has continued at other public events. 
 
 Meanwhile the Free Melania hashtag has been used on t-shirts, at women’s marches and by a number of comedians, many of whom have suggested the first lady should flee her husband. 
 
 Most recently, the pair’s body language during Trump’s first foreign trip since his inauguration has been circulating in mainstream and social media. 
 
 Footage emerged of Trump appearing to have his hand swiped away by his wife as they arrived at Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel on 22 May. 
 
 The pair was filmed in a similar situation days later in Rome, when Melania moved her hand to tuck her hair behind her ear just as Trump reached for her it. 
 
 Just weeks prior to the hand-swiping incident, Melania appeared to give her husband a quick elbow jab at the White House Easter Egg Roll, when he failed to put his hand on his chest during the national anthem. 
 
 Unsurprisingly pictures of the pair behaving awkwardly in public have promoted comparisons between the couple and former president Barack Obama’s relationship with his wife Michelle. 
 
 Indeed, Obama’s former photographer has started trolling the Trumps by sharing images of the Obamas acting warmly towards one another in contrast to the Trumps’ body language. ||||| With the flick of a wrist, Melania Trump — the seldom seen and even more seldom heard first lady — made herself visible this week. 
 
 The news coming out of the Middle East about FLOTUS were the swats seen around the world. Caught on video, Melania seemed to reject on two separate occasions the extended hand of her husband, President Donald Trump, during their first foreign trip as first couple. 
 
 However, the first lady actually ended up signaling her power in a much more obvious and deliberate way. With her clothing. Specifically, her belts. 
 
 When she arrived in Saudi Arabia last week, she wore an oversized gold belt over a black Stella McCartney jumpsuit. The jumpsuit was respectful; Melania was almost covered from head to toe. 
 
 In fact, the jumpsuit could be seen as a Western riff on the traditional abaya — the long, black dress that Saudi women are required to wear. The abaya covers everything except a woman's hands and face. The jumpsuit might even be considered a show of solidarity with Saudi women, except for the giant, eye-catching gold belt that would have looked completely at home at a World Wrestling Entertainment event. 
 
 The belt signaled wealth, perhaps ostentatiously; or power in a menswear kind of way and rebellion, given the abaya reference. 
 
 Even when Melania switched to more traditional first lady attire, such as dresses and skirts, she was belted. 
 
 She wore a safari-shirt dress with a brown belt to an all-women GE facility in Riyadh where, without irony, she tweeted about "great strides being made towards the empowerment of women." 
 
 In Jerusalem, a sacred site for Jews, Christians and Muslims, she chose a virginal white skirt and jacket, and again there was the belt. 
 
 Wearing a belt to signal power is nothing new. 
 
 Photos through the years of Melania Trump, America's new first lady. 
 
 Comic book hero, TV show and now movie character Wonder Woman also wears an oversized gold belt. It's part of her famously formfitting, red, white and blue, superpowered suit. At the start of the 1975 TV series, all a villain had to do was take off Wonder Woman's belt and, poof, she would lose her powers. 
 
 Throughout history, belts have been a symbol of strength. According to onceuponabelt.com, Mongols exchanged belts to cement an alliance and the Franks believed they could take an enemy's power if they could take his belt. 
 
 And for women in the Middle Ages, before there was that other go-to accessory, the handbag, belts would hold their coins and their fans. Women took a break from belts in the 1920s as the flappers wore dropped-waist dresses and dropped the belt altogether. 
 
 But in the '30s women pulled on pants and belts were back. Since then, they have taken on different forms: thin belts in the '50s, low-slung belts in the '60s, chain belts in the '70s and the embellished belts of today. Belts have never left women's fashion scene. 
 
 The woman dubbed the "Queen of Belts" by popsugar.com lives not too far from where Melania made her gold-belted touch down on foreign soil as America's first lady. Queen Rania of Jordan is known for her stylish belts. It's possible Melania was taking a cue from the Saudis' neighbor. 
 
 This is not the first time the world has tried to read the tea leaves of Melania's clothing choices. 
 
 We cannot forget the infamous Gucci blouse with the pussy bow that she wore at the second presidential debate. That was in October 2016, just two days after the release of the "Access Hollywood" tapes of her husband bragging in 2005 to TV host Billy Bush that he could grab women by their genitalia and they wouldn't do anything about it because he's a celebrity. 
 
 It's unlikely that Melania's selection of that blouse was an accident. She's a former model who knows better than most of us that clothing sends a message and who probably knew when she chose it what that bow is called. The message of the bow still remains unexplained. 
 
 One could argue that a bow is just a bow and a belt is just a belt, but when we are awash in selfies and have curated social media sites of Kardashian proportions, chances are the first lady is telling us something about herself and her politics with her clothing. 
 
 And, to me, Melania's message is a cinch. It's that she has power and no one, least of all the president, should forget it. Or he just might get swatted again. 
 
 Caryn Ward is an assistant professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. ||||| Melania Trump pledges to combat cyber-bullying as first lady 
 
 CLOSE If she becomes a first lady. Time 
 
 If Melania Trump is first lady, she'll focus efforts on putting an end to bullying on social media. 
 
 In her first solo speech since the Republican National Convention, Melania Trump on Thursday called for an end to online bullying of children and teenagers, saying, it is "absolutely unacceptable when it’s done with no name hiding on the internet." 
 
 “Technology has changed our universe. But like anything that is powerful it can have a bad side. We have seen this already. As adults, many of us are able to handle mean words — even lies. Children and teenagers can be fragile. They hurt when they are made fun of or made to feel less in looks or intelligence. This makes their life hard and forces them to hide and retreat. Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough especially to children and to teenagers.” 
 
 "We have to find a better way to talk to each other, to disagree with each other, to respect each other," she continued. She did not make any reference to the fact that her husband has engaged throughout the campaign in bare-knuckled personal attacks on his political opponents, the media, random celebrities and a host of others. 
 
 Hello! We’ve got complete midterm election coverage right here. Let’s begin! 
 
 Her speech in Berwyn, Pa. — a suburb of Philadelphia — was directed at suburban women, a group that could be critical if Trump wants to pull-off a win next week. 
 
 "People have asked me, if Donald is the President, what kind of First Lady will you be?" Melania Trump said. "It will be my honor and privilege to serve this country. I will be an advocate for women and for children." 
 
 Trump’s wife has stayed mostly out of the spotlight since her speech at this year’s Republican National Convention, which included a section taken directly from Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention speech. She was joined on the trail Thursday by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence's wife Karen — who gave a glowing introduction. 
 
 Melania Trump focused on her upbringing in Slovenia and making it to America. 
 
 "I'm an immigrant and let me tell you no one values the freedom and value of opportunity more than me," Melania Trump said. She said it took her 10 years to become a U.S. citizen. "Love for this country is something we immediately shared when I met Donald." 
 
 "He certainly knows how to shake things up — doesn’t he?" she asked, eliciting cheers from the crowd. 
 
 Washington Post-ABC News tracking polls released this week have Donald Trump losing white, college-educated women by roughly two dozen points. Mitt Romney won the group by 6 points according to exit polls. 
 
 One way the campaign has tried to appeal to suburban voters in Pennsylvania is to dispatch some of his less bombastic surrogates to the area. His daughter Ivanka Trump held a series of “coffee with Ivanka” events in the Philadelphia suburbs last month. 
 
 Melania Trump delivers remarks at a campaign rally in Berwyn, Pa. Nov. 3, 2016. (Photo: Mandel Ngan, AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states critical to Donald Trump's election. Currently, Clinton leads by an average of 3 points, but polls over the last week have shown a tightening in the race. 
 
 “Pennsylvania is a state that we are confident winning. It’s a state (whose) makeup fully relates to Mr. Trump’s message as well as Mrs. Trump’s message,” Boris Epsteyn, a senior adviser to the campaign, told USA TODAY on Thursday. 
 
 The campaign has spent a significant amount of time in Chester County, a Philadelphia suburb, where the city of Berwyn is located. 
 
 It’s a county in battleground Pennsylvania full of white, college-educated voters, a demographic with which Donald Trump has struggled. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2eYmJvH ||||| An unfortunate choice? Melania Trump was stylish in a fuchsia top paired with matching pants while supporting husband Donald Trump at the second presidential debate on Sunday, October 9. 
 
 But while she looked great, the $1,100 Gucci shirt was perhaps not quite the best fashion choice given the blouse's style: pussy bow. Just two days earlier, a 2005 video surfaced in which the Republican presidential nominee was recorded on an Access Hollywood bus bragging about groping women's genitals. 
 
 "You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. When when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything," the business mogul, 70, told then Access Hollywood host Billy Bush during the conversation. "Grab them by the p—y. You can do anything." 
 
 He also boasted about trying to seduce a married woman, who Access Hollywood has since identified as Nancy O'Dell. 
 
 A spokesperson for the Trump campaign told CBS News Sunday night that the former model's shirt choice "was not intentional." 
 
 Viewers of the debate were quick to ponder on Twitter why she may have selected to wear this particular style after the presidential hopeful's latest scandal: 
 
 Melania is going to vote for HRC the #PussyBow and matching pants (suit) confirm that she is a double agent. pic.twitter.com/uUscYfEOOG — Christen Clifford (@cd_clifford) October 10, 2016 
 
 Love Melania's pussy-bow blouse, wonder if her husband grabbed it from the closet for her? — Lizabeth (@lilbit_liebs) October 10, 2016 
 
 https://twitter.com/stellabugbee/status/785323907184222208 
 
 It seems both Melania Trump's speech writer and stylist do not read the news and/or do their research #pussybow #debates via @MegletNY pic.twitter.com/icOfAsZCjg — Kristen Massaro (@KreeBeau) October 10, 2016 
 
 Though Melania, 46, attended the debate, she did condemn her husband's lewd remarks. "The words my husband used are unacceptable and offensive to me," she said in a statement Saturday. "This does not represent the man that I know. He has the heart and mind of a leader. I hope people will accept his apology, as I have." 
 
 But according to The New York Times, the former model refused to do a joint TV appearance with her husband to address his 2005 comments. 
 
 The presidential hopeful initially labeled his words as "locker room banter," which he reiterated again during Sunday's presidential debate. After co-moderator Anderson Cooper pressed him on the topic, the former Apprentice star denied that he had sexually assaulted women. 
 
 Bush, 44, who was heard also making inappropriate comments in the leaked video, has been suspended from the Today show. 
 
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– President Trump's first international trip has given the public its longest look yet at how President Trump and Melania interact as a couple, and the Washington Post assesses. "Do they hold hands? (Not regularly.) Glance at one another lovingly or roll their eyes? (Neither, at least before the cameras.)" But don't be too quick to buy the negative press. They've been together 17 years, and the story has plenty of quotes from insiders who say they are much happier than headlines suggest. Yes, this hand-holding fail went viral, but less noticed were the times they have held hands on the trip. 'Awkward'? Speaking of that negative press, a headline at Newsweek wonders if the Trumps are "the most awkward couple in politics," running through examples going back to the inauguration. Subtle trolling: When the apparent hand swipe emerged, Pete Souza, the official photographer in the Obama White House, posted an image of the Obamas holding hands More assertive: A Financial Times writer thinks Melania is finally coming into her own as first lady. Debate all you want about that maybe-hand-slap, but "less disputed is the fact that Mrs. Trump is gradually becoming a more assertive and visible figure on the political stage—one enigmatic gesture at a time," writes Courtney Weaver. It makes sense she has laid relatively low, given that, unlike her predecessors, she is new to politics. Poker face: Unlike most previous first ladies, Melania doesn't have a "permanent" smile on her face at public functions, and that's not such a bad thing, writes Claire Zillman at Fortune. "No matter what you think of Melania Trump or her husband's politics, there is a subtle strength in her stone-faced expression during these command performances." Fashion: A post at news.com.au runs through her outfits on the trip and is impressed. "She’s been channelling her inner Business Barbie and rocking a series of fabulous two-piece suits, complete with giant belts cinched in at the waist." Refinery 29 notes that Dolce & Gabbana is the first major fashion house to boast of dressing her. Those belts: Caryn Ward at the Chicago Tribune takes an admiring dive into Melania's fashion and sees much in her choices, particularly her use of belts. "To me, Melania's message is a cinch. It's that she has power and no one, least of all the president, should forget it. Or he just might get swatted again." Her Catholicism: One thing that hasn't gotten much attention is a nugget that emerged out of her visit with the pope—confirmation that the first lady is indeed Catholic, notes CNN. That makes her the first Catholic first lady since Jackie Kennedy.