Melania Trump Yet To Play Her Incognito Hand Like Former First Ladies

Melania Trump has been busy getting settled into the White House and making sure Barron is getting used to his new digs away from his long-time home in Trump Tower. All eyes are on Melania waiting to see how she will navigate around D.C. now that she’s arrived.

Previous first ladies have found a way to travel through the streets, shops, and restaurants of the nation’s capital without gathering too much attention. Now the wait is on to see if Melania will borrow some ideas from anyone of the many women who have previously been where she is today.

Despite being the first lady and having the best chef’s at the ready to cook whatever it is that you desire at the White House, some of the previous first ladies enjoyed an occasional lunch out with friends at one of the many upscale D.C. restaurants. Just getting out of the house, even if it is the White House, is something many previous first ladies did by using some tactics so they would go unnoticed. Probably the most elaborate tactics used were by Hillary Clinton when she wanted to move around D.C. unnoticed.

The finest clothes in the land are just for asking and they can be delivered to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Sometimes a shopping trip to the mall isn’t about buying clothes as much as it is about getting out of the house and enjoying the therapeutic change that a walk through a mall offers.

Melania hasn’t been a White House resident for a full two weeks as of yet, so it may be a bit early to start labeling the new first lady a homebody, but she hasn’t made a solo trip out so far. The Star Tribune reported that New Yorkers will be the first to tell you that Melania Trump was like the elusive butterfly in Manhattan.

Author and popular Washington hostess Sally Quinn said about Melania,

“I don’t know anybody in New York who knows her or ever sees her socially and I suspect that will be the same here.”

Even Donald Trump has described his wife Melania as someone who is happier staying at home than to travel out socially.

The paparazzi once staked out Trump Tower and Barron’s school in Manhattan in the hopes of getting a snapshot of the first lady. She stopped accompanying Barron to school at one point and let him ride back and forth with the Secret Service.

The folks with cameras gave up because Melania very seldom ventured out of her home, as Cosmopolitan Magazine reported back in March. Will this be the same for Melania while at the White House? Will she be content in the new place she calls home and opt to stay put?

Although Melania will work hard from the White House, she’s not hunkering down in the mansion. She is planning on accompanying Donald Trump on a trip right after the 4th of July when he goes to Poland and Germany.

Will Melania eventually conjure up her own little ploy for those days she might want to venture out of the White House and do things without getting mowed down with reporters and masses of people? So how did the other first ladies do it?

When Hillary was the first lady and she wanted to get out without drawing a crowd she would don sweat clothes. A sweat shirt and sweat pants along with a baseball cap were her traveling incognito garb. She would insist that her Secret Service detail also blend into the crowd by looking like tourists so as not to give her away.

Michelle Obama was snapped in a famous picture coming out of a store with big dark sunglasses and a baseball cap. Most people didn’t notice her, but the one who did was ready with a camera and caught her in the act. She would get out for lunch with friends or for exercise classes. Laura Bush’s frequent outing was a shopping trip to Georgetown.

Will Melania dress down in sweat clothes and don a baseball cap for a bit of freedom while walking among the masses? Only time will tell if she will have a need to get out and do the everyday normal things that people do.

[Featured Image by Evan Vucci/AP Images]