MAUREEN CALLAHAN: Dr Jill would never admit it, but she and Melania are more similar than you’d think. And in a First Lady face-off, there’s only one Valentino-clad victor

Dr. Jill Biden may have graced the cover of Vogue, but Melania Trump did even better.

Before hosting a hugely successful Republican fundraiser on Monday night — which raised $1.4 million — Melania strutted through Manhattan in a sleeveless, figure-hugging red Valentino dress and six-inch Louboutin heels.

She was alone. But she looked unmistakably happy.

For a woman who communicates primarily through clothes, Melania radiated many things at once: strength, defiance, fiery determination and loyalty to her husband’s candidacy.

And this despite the fact that they have not been seen with the former president since their son Barron graduated from high school in May.

Jill, meanwhile, has been busy literally holding her elderly husband up, whispering orders in his ear, and, most indelibly, leading him off the CNN debate stage after his disastrous performance, only to drag him to a campaign rally later that same night, where she talks pitifully to him.

“Joe, you did a great job!” she said, condescendingly and enthusiastically. “You answered all the questions!”

Melania reportedly never wanted to be First Lady. In fact, she reportedly cried the night of the 2020 election, assuming her husband would never win, as did most of the media and almost all pollsters.

Maybe that’s her superpower: Melania doesn’t seem to care about the presidency.

She gives the impression of a woman who knows exactly what kind of man she is going to marry, who will not be used as a political prop and who does not view fame as a source of oxygen.

Jill, on the other hand, has become the Dems’ new Norma Desmond. Refusing to fade gracefully to the left of the stage, she desperately grasps for her husband’s power and all it offers her.

If she weren’t so unsympathetic, and weren’t so callously engaged in what increasingly looks like elder abuse — even far-left filmmaker Michael Moore said as much this week — you could almost feel sorry for her.

For what will Dr. Jill do when her husband is no longer president? She has little to offer, no apparent reinvention or second act. The memoir will undoubtedly be vague, glossy, and toothless.

So it’s back to the community college for our First Lady, who recently told Vogue that she doesn’t assign books to her English and writing students, just articles. Cheaper and easier, she explains.

What a metaphor for the Biden White House.

And that’s assuming she has time to teach. Elder care is expensive, and the Bidens, as we recently learned, are mortgaged to the rafters. Hunter has mounting legal bills.

Who would think that Jill would be content to care for a declining husband – eight years her senior, but looking so much older – and live out her days in obscurity, as matriarch to a shameless, filthy stepson and a deeply troubled daughter?

And what about her friends? Those A-list stars who are now fleeing in disgust—the Clooneys, Michael Douglas, Rob Reiner, Stephen King—may never return. Same goes for the billionaire and millionaire donors.

Now comes word that the Obamas are doing a U-turn. A damning report Thursday by Politico suggested that George Clooney sought approval from close friend Barack for his upcoming New York Times op-ed, published Wednesday, calling on Biden to step aside.

Remember, Barack is not a die-hard fan. “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to screw things up,” he memorably said of his former vice president in 2020.

This follows an Axios report last month that claimed Michelle Obama — by far the most popular and perhaps most influential Democrat — will not campaign for the Bidens because she is furious about the way her friend, Hunter’s ex-wife Kathleen, is being treated by her family.

All that “weird stuff” from the Biden family, as Barack once called it, may no longer be tolerated.

It makes sense, then, that Jill would squeeze every last bit of power and fame out of her role as First Lady while she still can.

The safety and security of the country will have to take second place for now, lest life after the White House become what will undoubtedly be a grim one.

Melania, meanwhile, has raised Barron, her only child, in almost complete privacy and, to her credit, without a trace of scandal.

But she certainly made mistakes as First Lady.

That infamous ‘I Really Don’t Care, Do U?’ jacket she wore while visiting a child detention centre was hideous, as was the bright pink bow blouse she wore to support her husband during a TV debate after his ‘grab her by the p****’ tape leaked.

But it seems she has learned her lesson.

We’ve heard no complaints from Melania’s camp about Anna Wintour kicking her out of Vogue (unlike her GOP predecessors Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush and Laura Bush, who all looked and were photographed regal).

Nor has there been any public complaint about the constant media mockery of her 24-year age difference with Donald, her Slovenian heritage, or even her Christmas decorations. Meanwhile, the press gave the Bidens carte blanche to exclude their granddaughter, Navy Joan, from those otherwise carefully hung Christmas stockings.

And Melania gets no recognition for being one of the rarest of political wives: a woman who deviates from the rules.

Hillary Clinton may have supported Bill and helped him with the so-called “crazies and sluts” who plagued his other wives, but Melania sat out Trump’s recent trial and conviction for his hush-money payments to a porn star.

Trump is alleged to have had an affair with Stormy Daniels just four months after Melania gave birth to Barron.

Was she humiliated by this summer’s trial? Of course she was. What woman wouldn’t be?

But Melania is not anyone’s victim.

Before joining Trump for his first term in Washington, she reportedly renegotiated her prenuptial agreement.

She is also said to have indicated that if Donald wins in November, she will no longer live in the White House.

Despite all their apparent differences, it seems that Jill and Melania have more in common than not. Both are strong, formidable women who have sacrificed much of themselves for their husbands’ ambitious goals, and who—some would say—serve as top advisors to their husbands.

None other than former Attorney General Bill Barr called Melania “elegant” and “intelligent” in his 2022 memoir, writing that he “always thought [she] was smarter than the president’.

But while Jill is inadvertently ushering in a new Trump presidency, Melania doesn’t seem too concerned.

She is 54 years old and her parents are almost out of the house. You would almost think that she will live her own life for the next four years: shopping, eating out and lying by the pool in Palm Beach.

Melania is a kind of Rorschach test, so enigmatic that proponents and opponents can project anything they want onto her.

What must Jill project onto her predecessor and likely successor? You sense that she might find Melania—married to a wealthy, powerful man who offers her the freedom and independence she craves—quite enviable.

Melania also doesn’t seem to need fame for attention or recognition. We never see her holding court with celebrities or bragging on social media. There’s a certain dignity in that.

Is her marriage partly transactional? Without a doubt. But as the saying goes: If you marry for money, you earn every penny.

Does anyone think Jill married Joe assuming he would be a regular civil servant his entire life?

Melania doesn’t need to be First Lady; for Jill, the position has become her entire identity. How lonely, how terrifying, to now have to live life as a debtor’s wife and a fallen ex-civil servant who has forgotten the basic idea: it’s the Americans who hire and fire you, not the other way around.

Melania has no nickname; Jill now goes by ‘Lady MacBiden’.

Jill’s political obituary, if she doesn’t make the right decision soon, will undoubtedly paint her as the most cowardly First Lady of modern times.

Melania, on the other hand, is perhaps seen as the most underrated.