Melania Trump has left a final snub on incoming first lady Jill Biden – not giving her successor a tour of the family wing of the White House.
It’s a really remarkable decision considering Trump has claimed her ‘Be Best’ campaign is her lasting legacy.
‘Melania Trump will become the first modern first lady not to invite the woman who will replace her to the White House for a walk-through of the private living quarters on the second and third floors,’ said author Kate Andersen Brower.
The tradition goes back to the 1950s when Bess Truman hosted her replacement Mamie Eisenhower.
And it’s a tradition that continued even under tense political circumstances.
Michelle Obama gave Melania the tour shortly after Donald Trump won the presidency.
Laura Bush had Michelle Obama over twice – once solo and once with her daughters so the girls could pick out their bedrooms in the residence.
But the tour – and accompanying tea – usually happen when the outgoing president invites the incoming president to a meeting in the Oval Office.
Donald Trump, the worst sore loser in presidential history, has not extended that invitation to Joe Biden.
Melania Trump and Jill Biden are believed to have last seen each other at the final presidential debate in October 2020 although they didn’t interact at that event.
Jill and Joe Biden certainly aren’t new to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Biden served as vice president for eight years and the couple were close to the Obamas.
Some of Biden grandchildren went to school with the Obama girls, cementing the ties between the two families.
The Trumps also aren’t attending Biden’s inauguration ceremony, when he becomes the nation’s 46th president at noon on Wednesday.
The last president not to attend his successor’s swearing in was Andrew Johnson, who, like Trump, had also been impeached, about 150 years ago.
The Trumps are scheduled to depart Washington D.C. early Wednesday morning.
The Bidens will be close by – they are spending Tuesday night at Blair House, the official guest house across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House.
That means the Trumps won’t host the Bidens for coffee – another tradition being skipped.
The outgoing first couple typically hosts the incoming first couple at the White House before they all ride to the Capitol together for the inauguration ceremony.
And that means Melania Trump will be visibly absent when Jill Biden, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton join their husbands at Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday afternoon to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider.
The images from that event will be stark but incomplete – a line of presidents and first ladies without the most recent occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
It’s unclear if the Trumps will join the former presidents and first ladies at the ritual events that usually command their presence – state funerals, presidential library openings, inauguration ceremonies, and others.
The Obamas did extend a warm welcome to the Trumps after he was elected despite the contentious election and Trump’s disparaging comments about Obama, including questioning whether he was born in the United States.
It’s unclear what’s next for Melania Trump, who is leaving the White House with a lower approval rating than that of the three first ladies who proceeded her.
She will depart on Wednesday with 47 percent approval of her tenure, 12 points less than Michelle Obama who left a 69 percent approval rating of her job as first lady.
Laura Bush exited the White House with a 67 percent approval rating and Hillary Clinton was at 56 percent upon her departure as first lady.
Melania Trump’s approval rating, however, is much higher than her husband’s – by double digits.
Only 29 percent approve of the job Donald Trump has done.
First ladies traditionally have higher poll numbers than their husbands given their roles is much less political.
But Melania Trump, 50, has taken a low-key approach to the job compared to her predecessors.
She has spent her final days in the White House out of sight, packing up the family belongings and preparing for the next chapter in their lives.
But in her four years in the national spotlight, Melania Trump made more news for what she has worn – the infamous ‘I really don’t care’ jacket on a Texas trip and her pith helmet on her Africa trip – that for what she’s done.
Her rare public comments – like her statement after the January 6th MAGA riot at the Capitol – resulted in her being called selfish for focusing on gossip about herself.
Melania Trump has made no indication she plans to keep up her ‘Be Best’ campaign or her work with the military once her husband leaves office.