First State Dinner: A Chance For Melania Trump To Put Her Stamp On The White House

First lady Melania Trump, President Donald Trump, Brigitte Macron and French President Emmanuel Macron walk across the South Lawn before participating in a tree-planting ceremony at the White House April 23. Trump is hosting Macron for a two-day official visit that will include a state dinner Tuesday night.

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First lady Melania Trump, President Donald Trump, Brigitte Macron and French President Emmanuel Macron walk across the South Lawn before participating in a tree-planting ceremony at the White House April 23. Trump is hosting Macron for a two-day official visit that will include a state dinner Tuesday night.

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Fifteen months into the Trump presidency, the first state dinner, in honor of French President Emmanuel Macron, will be a big moment for first lady Melania Trump, who has kept a lower profile than many of her predecessors.

“It’s much more than just a dinner,” said Kate Andersen Brower, author of First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies and a forthcoming book about vice presidents.

When it comes to state dinners, every choice from the china to the shape of the tables and the number of guests makes a statement that reflects the tastes of the first family, and especially the first lady. And a whole lot of people are watching. C-SPAN even provides live special coverage of some dinners.

“Laura Bush said she wasn’t nervous before her own wedding but she was nervous before the first state dinner with the Mexican president,” said Brower. “I think it’s a lot of pressure.”

Bush wrote about the preparations in her book Spoken From The Heart, making the comparison to her wedding:

“A state dinner is far more intricate, an elaborate display of hundreds of moving parts, from guest lists and menus, which require an advance tasting, to table seatings, arrival protocols, and choices of linens, flowers, china, and silver, even the champagnes and wines.”

It went off without a hitch, the night ending with a fireworks display over the Washington monument.

But the Obama’s first state dinner for the Indian prime minister in November 2009 wasn’t quite so flawless. The menu was prepared by celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson. Jennifer Hudson provided the entertainment. The decorations were lush. But it was all overshadowed by news of gate crashers Michaele and Tareq Salahi. They weren’t invited but were auditioning for the Real Housewives of D.C. reality show and somehow made it past multiple layers of security to get into the dinner.

Then-President Barack Obama greets Michaele and Tareq Salahi, who became known as the “gate crashers,” in November 2009.

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Then-President Barack Obama greets Michaele and Tareq Salahi, who became known as the “gate crashers,” in November 2009.

AP Photo/The White House, Samantha Appleton

“There are cautionary tales from every administration and no one escapes,” said Lea Berman, who was White House social secretary in the time of George W. and Laura Bush and is co-author of a book called Treating People Well.

“The first of anything and particularly the first of a state dinner after so long without having one, and this is not the first administration to wait an unusually long time to try a state dinner, makes it a little bit — the stakes are higher, let’s say,” said Berman of the Macron dinner.

She argued the stakes should be high. Berman said this dinner in particular is important because of the growing friendship between Presidents Trump and Macron and the recent military strikes in Syria, which were conducted by both countries along with the UK.

“You have the president and first lady extending not just their personal hospitality, but American hospitality, and it should reflect the best of what America has to offer,” Berman said.

Berman expressed confidence the team in the first lady’s office, which includes Bush administration veterans whom she stays in touch with, will be able to pull off the dinner. But there are some things you just can’t plan for.

State dinner mishaps

There was the state dinner celebrating the Bicentennial of the United States and honoring the Queen of England. President Ford began to dance with Queen Elizabeth, just as the Marine Band struck up “The Lady Is a Tramp.”

President Ford and first lady Betty Ford pose with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip outside the North Portico of the White House on July 7, 1976.

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“And afterward the social secretary Maria Downs said to the president, ‘I was so embarrassed about that sir, do you think she noticed?’ And he looked kind of grim and said, ‘She noticed,’” Berman said.

It seems the Ford administration may have been star-crossed when it came to state dinners. In October 1975, Johnny Cash was supposed to provide the entertainment for a dinner honoring Egypt’s Anwar Sadat.

President Ford’s remarks introducing Pearl Bailey and explaining why Johnny Cash was a no-show at the October 1975 state dinner.

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library

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Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library

“You can see from your programs, Johnny Cash was to be our featured guest tonight,” President Ford’s remarks read. “Unfortunately, this will not be possible.”

Instead he introduced Pearl Bailey, a Broadway performer who had provided the entertainment at another state dinner earlier that year and also during the Nixon administration.

Behind the scenes there had been a mad scramble. “At the last minute, literally they day of the event, they had to find a new entertainer,” said Berman.

First ladies put their stamp on state dinners

Every modern administration has approached state dinners differently, reflecting the tastes and styles of the first lady at the time. The Eisenhowers used tables connected end-to-end in the shape of a U. But that didn’t work for the Kennedys.

“Jackie Kennedy came in and said, ‘Look, I want smaller cocktail tables so people can actually talk,’” said Brower.

The Reagans, Clintons and Obamas had more celebrities in attendance than other administrations — though Nancy Reagan preferred small, intimate gatherings, while the Obamas went big often with the dinners held in tents on the South Lawn.

Tuesday night’s dinner, said Brower, will be the first chance to see how the Trump’s entertain in the people’s house.

In a statement, the White House said the first lady carefully selected all details of the dinner to “complement and pay homage to the long-standing friendship between the United States and France.”

The menu is meant to pay tribute to American culinary traditions with “nuances of French influences.” It begins with a course of goat cheese gateau, tomato jam, buttermilk biscuits and greens from the White House kitchen garden. The main course includes lamb, cipollini soubise and Carolina gold rice jambalaya. To finish it off, the Macrons will be treated to a nectarine tart with crème fraîche ice cream.

The meal will be served on both the Clinton and George W. Bush china, which features a green color palette to complement the green flowers that will be featured in the dining room.

There will also be more than 1,200 branches of cherry blossom, all homegrown in the United States, and more than 2,500 stems of white sweet peas and 1,000 stems of white lilac.

Dinner china is set before President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump host French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, for the first state visit of the Trump administration, in the State Dinning room of the White House, on April 23, 2018 in Washington, DC.

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Dinner china is set before President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump host French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte Macron, for the first state visit of the Trump administration, in the State Dinning room of the White House, on April 23, 2018 in Washington, DC.

Al Drago/Getty Images

The Kennedy Center’s Washington National Opera is expected to perform.

Still, some questions remain: Who made the final guest list? What will Melania Trump wear?

“Melania I mean, God, everyone’s going to be watching to see her expression and what she’s wearing,” said Brower. “We just know nothing about her. She’s such a cipher.”

One possible hint: In 1999 Melania Knauss, then just dating Donald Trump, told the The New York Times that if she and Trump were to wind up in the White House, she would be very traditional — “like Betty Ford or Jackie Kennedy.”

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Toronto Van Driver Kills at Least 10 People in ‘Pure Carnage’

The carnage was reminiscent of deadly attacks by Islamic State supporters using vehicles that have shaken up Nice, France, Berlin, Barcelona, London and New York. But late Monday, Canada’s public safety minister, Ralph Goodale, said this time appeared to be different.

“The events that happened on the street behind us are horrendous,” he said, “but they do not appear to be connected in any way to national security based on the information at this time.”

With the driver under arrest, the Canadian authorities began the process of reconstructing how — and why — a day filled with the promise of early spring became a scene of horror. The authorities released few details about Mr. Minassian on Monday night.

“There were a lot of pedestrians out, a lot of witnesses out, enjoying the sunny afternoon,” said Peter Yuen, the deputy chief of the Toronto police service.

John Flengas, the acting E.M.S. supervisor for Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, which said it received 10 victims from the scene, described it as “pure carnage.” He told CTV News on Monday that he had seen “victims everywhere.”

One witness said the van had mowed down everything in its path: pedestrians, mailboxes, electrical poles, benches and a fire hydrant. Another, who rushed to help the pedestrian struck while crossing the street, said, “Pieces of the van went flying everywhere.”

Meaghan Gray, a spokeswoman for the Toronto police, said the authorities received a report at 1:30 p.m. on Monday that the van had mounted a curb near Yonge Street and Finch Avenue West. Stephan Powell, a spokesman for the Toronto Fire Department, said pedestrians were struck at “at least two locations.”

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Ten victims were taken to the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, Dr. Dan Cass, its executive vice president, said at a news conference. Two were declared dead on arrival, five were in critical condition and three were in serious condition, he said.

Dr. Cass said that he did not have information about the nature of the victims’ injuries and that the hospital had not yet confirmed the identities of the dead.

In a statement on Monday, John Tory, the mayor of Toronto, said, “My thoughts are with those affected by this incident and the front-line responders who are working to help those injured.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “We’re monitoring the situation closely.”

Yonge Street is Toronto’s main artery, and is widely celebrated as the longest street in Canada. It cuts through the city from Lake Ontario through downtown before reaching the suburbs and then into farmland.

The deaths occurred in the far north, a densely populated part of the city surrounded by many new condominium towers. On Monday, many shops in the area remained closed, at the request of the authorities. And a makeshift memorial was developing at a stone wall just south of Finch Avenue.

Konstantin Goulich, a local resident, appeared with bags of markers and rolls of cardboard from a dollar store.

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“Guys please come and write how you’re feeling: your wishes for the victims, if you’d like to say something. Every bit of support counts,” Mr. Goulich said to passers-by.

“If you can’t write in English, write in your own language write in Chinese, write in Korean,” he said.

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Late in the day, well south of the scene of the killings, extra security was obvious around the Air Canada Centre in downtown Toronto, where the Toronto Maple Leafs were playing Boston in a playoff game. Large municipal dump trucks, apparently filled with sand and gravel, were used to block off roads, including one major thoroughfare near the ice rink.

After the game, which Toronto won, jubilant fans streamed out of the arena, but the only sign of the day’s events on Yonge Street were clutches of police officers wearing bulletproof vests. Some fans expressed shock about the carnage that had taken place earlier in the day.

“We don’t expect this in Canada,” said one fan, Luca Pitsocia, a 21-year-old aspiring paramedic.

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The van used in the rampage was stopped about a mile south of where it took place, said Dan Fox, a civil servant who passed the vehicle on his way to work on Monday. He said it had “significant damage.”

“It looked like the side of the van had scraped along the side of the building,” Mr. Fox said in a phone interview, the sound of police sirens wailing behind him. “The driver-side door was open, but I didn’t see anyone in or around the van.”

The episode in Toronto appeared to be the deadliest use of a vehicle in Canada to deliberately mow down pedestrians.

Last October, a police officer in Edmonton was struck with a car and stabbed, and four other people were later deliberately hit by a U-Haul truck. The driver of both vehicles, a Somali immigrant, was arrested in what Prime Minister Trudeau called a terrorist attack.

In 2014, a driver in the Montreal area struck two members of the Canadian armed forces and was shot and killed by the police, who described the attack as Islamist terrorism. One of the victims died.

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