The White House has unveiled First Lady Melania Trump’s official portrait. The sober black-and-white photograph by Régine Mahaux features Trump, the Washington Monument towering over her shoulder, resting her fingers on a reflective black desk and staring down the camera as if to say “You’re fired.” Indeed, Trump looked more like she was guest-starring on an episode of The Apprentice than assuming the role of First Lady of the United States.
Trump’s clothing certainly didn’t help the boardroom pastiche. The first lady wore a black Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo jacket with satin trimmed lapels over a white button-up, which she paired with a Ralph Lauren cummerbund and trousers. The choice to wear a tuxedo—as opposed to a blazer or blouse—made Trump look more like a freelance magician than a public servant. It’s perhaps unsurprising that a woman who lived in a gold-encrusted penthouse, whose fame is so intertwined with a reality television empire, would refuse to abandon theatrics—even when faced with 248 years of tradition.
The photograph is noticeably more toned down than her 2017 White House portrait, also taken by Mahaux. Unlike the new black-and-white image, Trump’s first portrait was in color, featuring the First Lady—face airbrushed into oblivion—wide-eyed, smiling with a hint of teeth, her arms crossed to display a massive diamond wedding ring. This time, while the portrait remains more subdued, the Trumps are displaying wealth not through diamond rings, but through the coterie of tech CEOs who sat front row at the 2025 Inauguration, whose combined net worth was over a trillion dollars.
Trump regularly sends messages with her clothing choices. In 2018, en route to visit children held in a migrant detention center in McAllen, Texas (some of whom were separated from their parents by the Trump Administration), the First Lady wore a Zara jacket with the message “I Really Don’t Care, Do U?” emblazoned on the back. She also earned criticism for the pink pussybow blouse she wore to a debate between her husband and Hillary Clinton in 2016 after his infamous “grab ’em by the pussy” tape was released. Now, attempting a no-nonsense businesswoman approach in her situationally inappropriate tuxedo, it seems that Melania Trump still struggles with sartorial messaging.
