With a few notable exceptions, former First Lady Melania Trump has been largely absent from the campaign trail this year. For that matter, she has largely remained off of the public stage with the exception of a few notable family events such as their son Barron's graduation and similar celebrations. That situation appeared to change this weekend, however, when Melania took to social media to issue a warning to all Americans, not about illegal migrant invasions or rising crime rates, but about the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It turns out that she has been harboring some ill will toward the Bureau ever since they raided Mar-a-Lago looking for improperly stored classified documents. Ms. Trump decried the invasion of privacy that she experienced at the hands of the Bureau and reminded the public about their Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures. Of course, this may be part of her efforts to promote her new memoir that is coming out this month, but it's still a valid point to make. (Newsweek)

In promoting her upcoming memoir, former first lady Melania Trump issued a "warning" to Americans about the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after the government agency conducted a raid on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 in regard to classified documents.

In the video posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday, Melania Trump, the wife of GOP presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump, speaks over images of Mar-a-Lago, the Trumps' Florida estate, with text from the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution superimposed. The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.

"I never imagined my privacy would be invaded by the government here in America," the former first lady states. "The FBI raided my home in Florida and searched through my personal belongings. This is not just my story, it serves as a warning to all Americans, a reminder that our freedom and rights must be respected."

Here's the video she posted to Twitter on Saturday. Be sure to have the volume on. 

https://t.co/ZCTwZSqZND pic.twitter.com/RxGQPFGZP3

— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) September 14, 2024

As you can see in the video above, Melania is definitely promoting her memoir, something that most authors are expected to do in order to boost sales around the release date. But she could have done that in any number of ways. Given the timing, she could have spoken about how close she came to losing her husband in July and the government's dubious response to that assassination attempt. She could have avoided politics entirely and talked about her own experiences as an immigrant coming to the United States and eventually rising up to become the First Lady. 

Those options were all on the table and I highly doubt that her publisher would try to muscle her into doing something she was opposed to or dissuade her from talking about something that she takes very seriously on a personal level. It might also be easy to write off such complaints coming from a wealthy and powerful woman who should be well-situated to fight back against "the man" when her rights are infringed. But in that regard, Melania Trump might be the ideal person to point out potential abuses by the FBI, the Secret Service, or other law enforcement and intelligence agencies. If this can happen to her, it could happen to anyone. 

Let's keep in mind that this situation unfolded over a period of years, coming to a head with the August 8, 2022 raid on Mar-a-Lago. By that point, the National Archives and Records Administration had been chasing their own tail for a couple of years, supposedly attempting to sort out which of Trump's trove of documents were or were not classified and which ones needed to be turned over. You are free to take whichever side you like in that controversy, despite the fact that nobody in the DoJ seemed to have the slightest interest in going after Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton for even more egregious violations of the same rules. The point here is that there was never any mention of even the possibility that Melania Trump had been given access to or removed classified documents improperly. Yet there was the FBI, ruffling through her wardrobe and her underwear drawer searching for supposed evidence related to the case.

During her time as part of the First Couple, Melania Trump rarely if ever seemed to seek out the limelight for her own benefit. She was a gracious hostess who provided an appropriate level of fashionable social courtesy to the comings and goings of the White House. She was one of the most charming, fashionable, and beautiful First Ladies to grace that venue in living memory. If the FBI deliberately decided to make her into a target, they may find that they've bitten off more than they can chew.