Body Double Conspiracy

Okay, this is just plain nuts! The Internet just recently exploded with the fact that Trump was appearing with a body double of his wife, Melania.

What precipitated this latest conspiracy theory is when President Trump acknowledged during a press conference on Puerto Rico that the woman wearing a coat and sunglasses standing next to him was in fact his wife, Melania. The media is basing the body double claim on the shape of the woman's nose. Photos of the real Melania and the fake Melania appeared together on social media. Immediately, rumors appeared that Melania was divorcing her husband and Trump was using a body double to hide this fact.

The words that Trump used during the press conference was: "My wife, Melania, who happens to be here."
Recent incidents add to this conspiracy theory, such as Melania swatting her husband's hand away when he tried to grab her hand while walking on a red carpet after landing in Israel to visit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyanhu.
Also, Melania frowned when Trump turned away from her on Inauguration Day.

Supposedly, some female Secret Service agent looks a lot like Melania, and she has been spotted in pictures of the Trump and his wife. One thing that helps in this conspiracy is the fact that Melania likes to wear dark sunglasses.
This is not the first body double conspiracy. Supposedly, Hillary Clinton used a body double at a memorial event in 2016, which the media claimed that she looked too healthy to be Clinton.

Well, the facts don't back up this half-baked conspiracy theory. A Facebook video from CNN.com tries to show Melania's face as being rounder, and more distorted than the real Melania's face. This is just poor video quality. Different lenses and focal lengths can do this. I know this because I'm a photographic scientist.

Also, several photographs of Melania without her sunglasses show that she is truly the real Melania.
I'm not sure why this idea of a body double would make any difference. Let's just say that Trump uses a body double for his wife. Would it really matter as far as his functioning as a president? The answer is no. It would be significant only if Trump used a body double.

First of all, Melania is obviously a trophy wife. Many rich white men have trophy wives because they have the money to do it; however, I don't think she is a typical trophy wife.

Melania Trump is much smarter than most people realize. She runs a skincare company and avoided publicity about being its CEO to make it stand on its own. It turns out that she may be worth more than her husband.

My take on this is that it's just another crazy conspiracy theory based on unverified observations that are more instinctive than logical. The question to ask is: why would they do this? What purpose would it serve? If it doesn't make sense then it's probably made up.

Thanks for reading.