WASHINGTON: The incoming First Lady and Second Lady were the cynosure of many eyes at the Trump inauguration with social media commentaries on their mannerisms and at tire ranging from fawning to scalding.
Vice-president JD Vance’s wife Usha Chilukuri Vance — the first Indian-American Second Lady — wowed many with what fashionista Oscar De La Renta called a “custompeony cashmere coat with scarf wrap and complementing tea-length dress.”
Trump himself complimented her later, not for her dress but her smarts, telling a spillover gathering after the inauguration that “the only one smarter than him (JD Vance) was his wife,” and joking that he “would have chosen her” as VP but the line of succession would not allow it.
Melania Trump, meanhile, wore a dark coat and skirt from NY designer Adam Lip-pes that was accessorized with a large hat, and as some keen-eyed observers noted, prevented Trump from kissing her. Not that it mattered on an afternoon where everything was kissy-feely, even among Washington’s pols and California’s tech bros, heralding a new romance in America.