Things are getting weird in the ever-evolving story of Alicia Machado, the former Miss Universe who has been thrust into the political spotlight after the first presidential debate and featured in a new Clinton campaign video. In a recent interview, Machado went after not Donald Trump, but his wife Melania.
Speaking with Cosmopolitan magazine, Machado attacked Melania Trump by calling her “a decoration” before attacking the Slovenian's English speaking.
"I think I speak more English than her… I don’t see anything about this girl. She’s a doll. She’s a decoration. That is how I see her,” Machado said.
Machado didn’t stop there though, saying that as the wife of a politician, it was Melania’s job to “to help everybody around you,” and that “it’s not to make yourself rich or more powerful.”
So the woman making national news because Donald Trump said bad things about her is now doing interviews and saying bad things about Trump's wife. Got it.
Despite giving a speech at the Republican National Convention, Melania Trump has often stayed out of the political spotlight. When she’s been asked why she hasn’t hit the campaign trail more often, Mrs. Trump said she prefers to stay in New York to be a mother to the couple's 10-year-old son, Barron.
Apparently, that isn’t good enough for Machado. For some reason, she feels that the woman who has remained very low-key throughout this election is somehow making herself richer and more powerful, and apparently her heavy accent makes her less able to help those around her.
I would argue, of course, that Mrs. Trump is helping those around her: her family. She is choosing to be a mother first and a candidate’s wife second. She is choosing to remain out of the spotlight instead of turning the spotlight on herself. But because this doesn’t fit Machado’s definition of what Melania should be, she is apparently a “decoration” and a “doll.”
For someone who made headlines thanks to negative things said about her, it almost reeks of hypocrisy to then turn around and start doing the same thing. Whatever righteous indignation that Machado has toward Donald Trump for his past comments about her, she would be wise to keep her focus directed at him instead of going after his wife.