What on Earth is Melania Trump thinking? | Arwa Mahdawi

The Guardian — Apr 11, 13:00 PM

The first lady has put the Barbra Streisand effect in overdrive with a PR nightmare of her own making

You’ve probably heard of the https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/mar/20/streisand-effect-internet-law">Barbra Streisand effect: the phenomenon where attempts to censor information end up drawing more attention to it.

Now we might soon be referencing the https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/melania-trump">Melania Trump effect: the phenomenon where holding a https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/09/melania-trump-jeffrey-epstein">surprise press conference to state that you did not have a relationship with a dead paedophile, and would like people to please stop speculating about the matter, immediately causes people to start speculating about the matter.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist