Cast your vote: Should We Pay the First Lady?

Plus, all eyes on the Trumps at the Kennedy Center amid unrest.

First Lady Melania Trump walks through a display of 453 American flags on display in Huntington, West Virginia, in July 2019 representing the number of children in Cabell County’s foster care system. (Official White House photo by Andrea Hanks)

From the Editor: Nearly two years ago, we launched East Wing Magazine to help tell the stories of America’s first ladies—historic figures in their own right—whose contributions to the presidency are just coming to light thanks to the foundational scholarship and research that began to take root in the mid-1980s. Our examination of these women over the past months has reported a reoccurring theme of parity for women in society. The position of first lady since the country’s founding has been increasingly visible and consequential, yet always voluntary. So as the country approaches its 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026, first ladies biographer Annette Dunlap this week for East Wing Magazine asked an obvious, yet, sensitive question: Should we pay …