Since first stepping foot inside the White House, Melania Trump has had the interests of American voters in mind.
Even critics have admitted Melania has been a graceful and active first lady that has embraced a packed schedule. Unlike Michelle Obama, she conquers all of her tasks under a lean East Wing operation.
The numbers show that Melania is doing more with less — and it’s saving American taxpayers a lot of money.
Her predecessor, Michelle Obama, had a hefty number of aides on her payroll. During her first year in the White House, Michelle had a total of 16 aides working for her. The aides had a combined earning each year of $1.24 million (yes, million!).
Melania has cut back the bloated first lady payroll by only employing four aides — she actually had the smallest operations group within recent history. Their total salaries per year will be a total of $486, 700. In other words, Melania is saving over $750,000 more than Michelle ever did!
Fox News reported that “The details are contained in an annual report the White House sends to Congress showing the names, positions and salaries of all its personnel. Both the Obama and Trump administrations acknowledged several additional staffers beyond those listed in the report with the term “first lady” in their titles. But even counting all those employees — 24 for Michelle Obama and nine for the current first lady — Melania Trump’s office is relatively small.”
A spokesperson for the first lady has detailed that the approach to having a small group of aides is intentional on Melania’s part.
“As with all things that she does, she is being very deliberate in her hiring, focusing on quality over quantity,” communications director, Stephanie Grisham, explained. “It is important to her that the team is a good fit for what she wants to accomplish as first lady, and that everyone works well together. She also wants to be mindful and responsible when it comes to taxpayer money.”
Listed within the White House annual reports are the titles of Melania’s aides. The roles include a chief of staff, a communications director, a deputy chief of staff and a deputy director of advance.
Her predecessor’s excessive amount of aides had the same roles as Melania’s and a few others such as additional press aides, a director of policy and projects, a personal aide, a traveling aide and a director of correspondence.
Michelle Obama’s office did not return a request for comment.