Melania Trump: what she wore

She wore an itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini

For the first time that day…

(Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, 1960)

Of course, Melania Trump did not wear a bikini to visit the border country between Texas and Mexico. She did not hide in the locker room rather than step out and face the gawkers. But she did the next worse thing… Melania wore a Zara jacket priced around $45 with an angry message on the back: “I don’t really care do U”

The T-shirt message tells us what you the wearer really thinks. Melania’s message reflects her thinking-- but why is she so alienated? My guess is that refugee children and their fate hardly crosses Melania’s mind. Certainly not enough to run off and get a Zara jacket.

Zara, Melania’s choice may provide clues to her thinking. Zara began in Galicia, Spain—the most northwest province of Spain. A woman, Rosalia Mera, co-founded the company with her husband and became the richest self-made female entrepreneur in the world. Zara’s secret to success was bringing new designs to market with incredible speed and cost efficiency.

Melania may know nothing of Rosalia's story. The casual-green jacket with the modest price tag may remind her of you youth, the days when she had to pinch pennies as a struggling model. We all long for the carefree days of our youth, and Melania may miss those exciting early days on the runway.

Melania’s life changed suddenly and took a quantum leap with the marriage to Trump. He got elected President. Talk about a game changer! Melania became a FLOTUS, the First Lady of the United States. Even the name sounds uptight and boxed-in. 

Melania showed a lapse in judgement. Possibly she gambled too riskily by shouting to the heavens, asking for a life intervention from the Higher Powers. 

As the Princess chained to the top of Trump Tower, Melania has no easy way off the island. She may be eligible for a break—the jacket actually had a free-flowing, casual quality— reminding us of the relaxed world Melania seeks while no one listens. 

Donald got promoted, possibly to the job he cannot do, and Melania may be suffering the same fate. She wants a fashion line of her own. Anything other than the First Lady’s stuffy uniform. 

Melania has to look a certain way and act a certain way. She’s tired of the whole fishbowl existence and, just like the immigrants plight captured by the Emma Lazarus poem at the Statue of Liberty... Melania yearns to breath free.

The New Colossus 

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Trump’s drunken dance: may be working

 Zeibekiko is a popular Greek nightclub dance, done by only one person at a time, a male performer, and everyone else has to kneel down, forming a circle around the dancer, clapping following the rhythm and encouraging the dancer. Zeibekiko dance does have some particular steps, but the most impressive dance is the one where the dancer shows his creativity, performing special feats, adding a little humor and personal touch to the occasion.

(Wikipedia)

Donald Trump moves with the creativity and freedom of a drunk or a Greek guy stumbling around the dance floor. The Zeibekiko dancer sometimes mimics a drunk.Trump stomps across the world stage with the stumbling grace of a drunk. He bellows around the White House or Mar a Lago or Trump Tower, stomps out of G7 gatherings, hires Rudy Giuliani as alternative drunk uncle to fend off Robert Mueller and the Stormy Daniels lawyer. Trump huffs and puffs and tweets like a man possessed, but still pulls off a meeting with North Korea. Donald J. Trump, a teetotaler, never has touched alcohol, but moves with the stumbling grace of a drunk.

Trumps lack of planning may be his secret. Presidential campaign? He hadn’t a clue. Came up with a great slogan—Make America Great Again. Surprised people by filling up stadiums on the campaign trail. He talked different. Trump delivers speeches like a standup comic. We all watch him wondering about his next move. The behavior of an improvisational performer attracts our attention. 

Trump’s understanding of modern electronic media may explain his mastery of the improvisational. Our social media network is very interactive. As Marshall McLuhan correctly predicted—the new era of electronic communications, the one we’re living in now, is all about engagement. Cellphones, video games, Facebook, etc. engage us more personally than books, newspapers and even the television of old.

Trump has integrated his Twitter account with the hours of coverage he attracts on cable television to become a broadcasting system all his own. How does he keep his viewership, readership, follower numbers at a high level?... He does it with outrageous statements, insults, provocative lies, and manufactured culture wars with American football players, and the timing, intonations and attitude of a seasoned standup comic.

I look for traces of Donald Trump in old footage of his early television appearances. He seems slightly shy but eager to master the TV studio. He has a glint in his eye. I see a Rascal.

Trump reveals in those brief TV appearances, traces of the rascal, the scamp, scalawag, scoundrel, who would come to fruition during his run for Presidency. He quickly wanted to master the TV performer’s craft. He had some success but really flourished when he began to control everything. 

“Emoluments? What is that? I want to make money and be President at the same time.” 

He seems out of control but then controls almost everything. 

The improvisational mode suits Trump and his spontaneity suits the new electronic media environment. Trump’s media enemies hate the ease of his approach and fault him for being stupid, a sign they do not “get” Trump’s mastery of their own medium.

And the Zeibekiko dance continues.... 

Trump totters at the edge of the nightclub stage, verges on a drunken stumble but always finds his footing. 

He somehow avoids falling down-- and surprises us again and again with the outrageous behavior of a wild standup comic.

American Puritanism vs Vegas Mob

The Puritans arrived early. The Pilgrims landed at the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 and the Puritans soon followed. Their conservative religious beliefs have influenced the American nation to the present day. Belief do not always account for behavior. The Bible Belt reflects the Puritan message to the present day. But you have to wonder-- who won the way Puritanism or hedonism?

What is Puritanism? Puritanism suggests “against pleasure” and Puritans are not associated with having fun. That’s where the mobsters who built Las Vegas come in. The Italian Mafia understood the sensual side of human beings—sex, eating, drinking, gambling and “being naughty” are part of the human psyche. 

Religious beliefs do not erase the pleasures of the flesh. The Puritans and Mafia may have agreed on man’s sinful nature. Each group took a different approach to the sins of the flesh. The Protestants said “don’t do it outside of marriage.” The Vegas Mob eventually said “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”

The Vegas Mob realized even the holiest among us entertain erotic thoughts. Our human senses seek expression. They filled that need—starting 400 years after the Puritans arrived on Plymouth Rock. Hoover Dam, legalized gambling and the arrival of the Mafia dons started Las Vegas on its path and eventual reputation as Sin City.

Though no expert—give the Mafia credit. They knew the showgirls had appeal but came up with a few great marketing strategies. 

1)   Offering free drinks to gamblers is absolute genius. Nobody else gave out free alcohol. The Vegas crime bosses figured that alcohol lowers social inhibition. Vegas is all about lowering inhibition. Drunk and stoned people spent more time at the gambling tables.

2)  Offering good food at bargain basement prices produces similar results. Vegas always had a reputation for inexpensive food. Now it’s know for excellent food. Taste is another human sensory pleasure and you eat well in Vegas.

3)  Making you feel important. Spend money in Vegas and they treat you nicely with comped rooms. The American tendency has always been to be modest and unassuming. In Vegas they said “Hell no to modesty.” They recognized customers, acknowledged them and brought them back for more.

4)  Turn the gaming rooms into comfortable air-conditions dens of iniquity. The flashing lights, clanging slot machines, scantily clad waitresses bringing free drinks and the lure of easy money all worked like a charm. 

5)  Remove all clocks and turn the gambling area into a labyrinth. No clocks  visible and you reduce the uptightness about time of day. Difficult to escape hallways and corridors all lead customers back to the fun rather than back to the rooms.

6)  Legalized prostitution. That’s pretty self-explanatory. Now that many states have legal gambling—Vegas has been forced into an entertainment center. Prostitution is an entertainment draw—along with comedians, magicians, lion tamers and Rat Pack revival groups.

The Bible Belt probably extends as far west as Texas, but not all the way to Nevada. However, religious devotion is a big part of American life from coast to coast. 

Got to give the Vegas Mob credit—for understanding hedonism as well as the most devout churchgoer. The Mob turned just went a different route and turned sin into a profit center.