If there’s one thing Melania Trump has learned about her husband in 10 years of marriage, it’s this: Let Trump be Trump.
“He is who he is,” the wife of the brash billionaire told People Magazine in her first mainstream media interview since Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign earlier this year. “Even if you give him advice, he will maybe take it in, but then he will do it the way he wants to do it. You cannot change a person. Let them be. Let them be the way they are.”
Melania Trump, a Slovenian-born former model, has been absent from the campaign trail since appearing at her husband’s side in June as he announced his run for president.
And while she is “not ready to get political yet,” the People Magazine interview is a sign the Republican presidential candidate’s wife may begin to step out into the public eye.
Staring down criticism for comments he’s made about women like Fox News’s Megyn Kelly and fellow GOP presidential contender Carly Fiorina, Trump has taken to referencing the women in his life to back up his claim that “I cherish women,” from his daughter Ivanka to his wife Melania.
While Trump may begin to play that surrogate role herself, she told People Magazine that she needs to stay at the couple’s lavish quarters in New York City’s Trump Tower to be with her nine-year-old son Barron.
“My husband is traveling all the time,” she told the magazine. “Barron needs somebody as a parent, so I am with him all the time.”
The candidate himself spoke to the magazine about the issues related to balancing his political career, his business and his family.
“It’s a little scary for Barron,” Trump told People. “He thinks he is going to be taken away from friends. But I tell him if this happens, Daddy will help people, and can help children like him, and that makes him happy.”
As for Trump’s chances in the race, the former supermodel said the campaign is “a long road” that she is taking “day by day.”
“My husband has a lot of people cheering for him. We will see,” she said.