When Melania, Jill, Michelle, Hillary met last year: 'First Ladies are not mean girls'

Hillary Clinton in her latest memoir Something Lost, Something Gained has dedicated a chapter on the First Ladies -- past and present -- and called it a remarkable sisterhood. There was a mink-reunion of first ladies in 2023 at former first lady Rosalynn Carter's Atlanta memorial. the Clintons, Obamas and Bidens were all there and to Hillary's surprise Melania Trump was also there, she wrote. This was after Trump lost the 2020 election and Melania Trump almost recoiled from the public life.

Hillary said she was not aware that Melania was also coming. “If anybody at the White House or on Bill’s or my Secret Service detail had been briefed on Mrs. Trump’s plan to attend, they didn’t tell me."

Melania was very smiley but uncertain and was expecting people to be nice to her. "We were. We all went up to her...Jill air-kissed her cheek, and Michelle Obama gave one her of her signature big hugs," Hillary wrote.
Melania did not engage much. She had a look on her face that reminded Hillary of "the little kid at the birthday party who doesn’t know anyone and is waiting at the edge of the circle, hoping people are going to be nice."

"Bill tried to make conversation, asking her how she was, but he was met with a smile and few words. I reached out, shook her hand, and said, ‘Hello, Melania, it’s nice to see you’,” Hillary wrote, as quoted by the New York Times.

In this chapter of her memoir, Hillary described Laura Bush, wife of George W Bush, as a picture of polish and warmth, always.

'I closed the breaking news alert'
Hillary touched upon some other aspects of her political and personal life in this memoir including her reaction to when Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies. She said she did not revel in Donald Trump's conviction. Instead, she "closed the the breaking news alert and exchanged a few funny tweets and memes with friends over text. … That evening I had to appear at an event for women’s rights. I started my remarks by asking, ‘Anything going on today?’”