Melania says she supports abortion. I really don't care, do you? – Mother Jones

Laurence Kesterson/AP

Less than one A week before Melania Trump is set to release her memoir, the former first lady appeared to break ranks.

“Melania Trump passionately defends abortion rights in upcoming memoir,” read the headline. The Guardianwhich had received an early copy, added excerpts in which Melania declared it a “commandment” to guarantee a woman's autonomy. “Restricting a woman’s right to decide whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body,” she reportedly wrote. “I have carried this belief with me throughout my adult life.”

These views are of course in direct contradiction to the extreme anti-abortion stance of her husband Donald Trump, who wants to return to the White House. You appear as a former president who frequently boasted about his unique role in supporting the coup Roe v. Wadeis bending over backwards on an issue that has proven electorally vicious for Republicans.

So comes Melania – and with her one of the most persistent storylines of the Trump era: Donald Trump may be an extremist, but the women around him supposedly are a moderating force. His wife in particular, with her projected sense of mystery and suggestion that she is the silent victim of a terrible man, has served as a suitable vehicle for this narrative.

It was strange to even believe. But after nearly a decade of evidence proving otherwise, it strikes me as equal parts baffling and damning that the narrative survives. In fact, tons of people have posted this Guardian's excerpt without context on social media like it was a bomb. (The Guardian posted another excerpt this morning in which Melania claims she tried to convince Trump to abandon his administration's family separation policy, again without much skepticism.)

Then a familiar news cycle: National news outlets repeated both headlines. Here's CBS News concluding that this is an unmistakably pro-choice message from the former first lady:

To be clear, it may very well be true that Melania harbors secret pro-choice views. But should we care? The former first lady, who eagerly spread damaging lies about Barack Obama, has always been a willing contributor to her husband's downfall, a longstanding complicity that most recently led to Melania expressing conspiracy theories surrounding Trump's shooting. Experts have warned that such partisan exploitation could lead to retaliation.

But if people Do Still investing in the fiction that Melania is a covert advocate for more progressive values, that she's somehow the defiant, least terrible member of the MAGA kingdom. Haven't the last eight years shown how weak-minded she is? Finally, roe is gone; There were family separations, but “I really don’t care, do I?”; and a return to the White House will certainly be far worse.

Still, fiction or not, there are books to sell and cryptic videos to film. In the meantime, the media seems perfectly fine, even happy, to continue to launder this hoax. Just apparently not for $250,000.