The warning to Melania's critics hidden in her White House portrait

In 2017 it took almost three months for the to release an official portrait of the new First Lady who in a significant break from tradition had yet to move permanently into the executive mansion.

Amidst swirling rumours that Melania’s relocation was contingent upon (from her view) successful renegotiation of her pre-nup, she was a largely absent figure in the Trump eco-system, and certainly a peripheral presence as the administration crafted its public image.

Fast forward four years and this time things, like so much else in Trump 2.0, look very different. Less than twenty-four hours after watching her husband be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, Melania found herself, bags already unpacked, standing in front of her long-time photographer Regine Mahaux in the distinctive Yellow Oval Room, supposedly one of Melania’s favorite’s, posing for a picture that even for more traditionally minded presidential consorts rarely appears with such haste.