Melania Trump says heading to the White House for the second term is much different than the first

WASHINGTON (AP) — Soon-to-be first lady Melania Trump said Friday that preparing to enter the White House for the second time looks a lot different from the first go-around. Now, she and her husband know what to expect.

“You know what you need to establish, you know what kind of people you need to hire for your office,” she said on “Fox & Friends” in a rare television appearance, where she showed off holiday ornaments she’s selling and her memoir as Christmas approaches.

She said the pace has been fast, as Donald Trump works to build his administration: “It’s incredible and we are very, very busy.” She’s packing up so “we can start on Day 1.”

She said her husband’s attitude after his 2024 win was not the same as when he won in 2016. “The country and the people really supported him,” she said. I think the energy is different. People around him are different.”

The incoming first lady also praised her 18-year-old son Barron, crediting him with helping his father find new ways to reach the audience that elected him president. Trump has four other children.

“He is a grown young man, I’m very proud of him about his knowledge, even about politics and giving advice to his father,” she said. “He brought in so many young people. He knows his generation.”

She described working on her memoirs as a process that was “very personal and could be sometimes very joyful, but also traumatic and hard.”