Melania Trump is brimming with plans for second term

First lady Melania Trump is returning to the East Wing bolstered by lessons from four years in an unelected job she has privately acknowledged was a whirlwind of responsibilities of which she was largely unaware.

First lady Melania Trump is returning to the East Wing bolstered by lessons from four years in an unelected job she has privately acknowledged was a whirlwind of responsibilities of which she was largely unaware. This time, she says, will be different. President Donald Trump and his team are returning to office with a deeper understanding of how to use the levers of federal government to enact their agenda. Similarly, the first lady is signaling that she has learned from her first term and the subsequent four years — and that she is preparing to take on a more prominent role. Melania Trump spent the two months between Election Day and Inauguration Day engaged in intense preparation for a return to the White House, sources told CNN, studying foreign affairs, preparing on her own and joining her husband for dinners with VIPs at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. This week, she returned to the world stage, saying little and seeing even less in a custom, wide-brimmed hat as her husband took his oath of office. “It’s really clear that she has a confidence that we didn’t necessarily see the first time around. She understands not only what’s at stake for this administration, but what’s at stake for her,” said Kate Bennett, author of “Free, Melania” and a former journalist who extensively chronicled the first lady’s first term.