WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — After Melania Trump missed key occasions in her husband’s presidential bid earlier this yr — from the kickoff of the 2024 election in Iowa to Donald Trump’s Tremendous Tuesday victory social gathering — reporters requested the previous first woman whether or not she deliberate to hit the marketing campaign path. Her response: “Stay tuned.”
However since making that remark in March, after she and Donald Trump voted in Florida’s major, Melania Trump has largely avoided public appearances.
The few exceptions have included a few fundraisers in April and their son’s highschool commencement.
The previous first woman noticeably didn’t accompany the presumptive Republican presidential nominee on any of the times of his greater than monthlong hush cash trial in New York. She was not there final month for the responsible verdict or the next day for his remarks at Trump Tower. She additionally didn’t seem June 14 at a 78th celebration organized for Trump by his fan membership, or at any of the marketing campaign rallies he has held in current months.
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Her absence in the course of the trial and for different vital moments is uncommon, stated Katherine Jellison, a professor of historical past at Ohio College who research first girls. However Jellison stated perhaps it mustn’t come as a shock as Melania Trump appears reluctant to comply with the standard public position of a politician’s spouse. As first woman, she additionally saved a low profile and he or she was not an everyday presence on her husband’s dropping 2020 presidential marketing campaign.
“But everything the Trumps do seems to be against the standard playbook of how candidates and spouses behave,” Jellison stated.
Melania Trump’s conduct deviates from how different politicians have relied on their spouses. Typically male politicians flip to their wives to attempt to attain out to feminine voters. Candidates additionally could also be joined by their spouses as a approach of giving voters extra of a way of what the candidate is like outdoors the political enviornment.
Throughout this yr’s GOP major, for instance, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ spouse, Casey DeSantis, traveled with him, granted interviews and fashioned a coalition named Mamas for DeSantis earlier than he suspended his bid for the nomination.
Vivek Ramaswamy’s spouse, Dr. Apoorva Ramaswamy, additionally was on the marketing campaign path, typically showing together with their two younger kids to speak concerning the significance of household.
The Related Press reached out to fifteen individuals who have been in main fundraisers or in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property not too long ago. None stated that they had encountered Melania Trump on the Florida property.
Her workplace has not responded to a number of requests for remark. Her solely public assertion of late got here two days after the Florida Republican Get together introduced with fanfare that son Barron Trump, 18, was chosen as a state delegate for the Republican Nationwide Conference and her workplace stated he couldn’t make it, citing prior commitments.
Reporters on the New York courthouse throughout Trump’s felony trial repeatedly requested him, “Where’s Melania?” however he by no means answered. Trump allies cited their son’s college calendar as the primary cause for her absence with out denying it was a fragile time for the household.
Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, was requested whether or not there have been talks about her accompanying him to courtroom.
“That wasn’t a discussion that I wanted to have,” Blanche responded, chatting with Miami trial lawyer David Oscar Markus for his “For The Defense” podcast. “This was a tough case because of the nature of the charges, the evidence that came in, the history, how long it had been.”
A number of the testimony aired how Trump allegedly had intercourse with porn actor Stormy Daniels in July 2006, about 4 months after Melania Trump had given start to Barron; Trump has denied Daniels’ declare. Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen testified that Trump didn’t seem to care about how the story of an encounter he was trying to bury would harm his marriage as a lot as he cared about it damaging his 2016 presidential aspirations.
However Hope Hicks, Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign communications chief, testified that Trump was involved in 2016 about how a narrative associated to Playboy mannequin Karen MacDougal can be seen by his spouse and wished her to ensure newspapers weren’t delivered to their residence.
Melania Trump didn’t submit something on her social media accounts after her husband was convicted on 34 felony counts. That’s in distinction to Trump’s elder sons, who shortly condemned the decision. Daughter Ivanka Trump posted on Instagram a photograph of her as a toddler with a youthful Trump and the message “I love you dad.” Tiffany Trump, his youthful daughter, accompanied him to the courthouse final month for the trial’s closing arguments.
“I think it’s very hard for her,” Trump stated about his spouse, in an interview with Fox Information after the decision. “I mean, she’s fine. But, you know, she has to read all this crap.”
Regardless of her absence on the marketing campaign path, Trump typically mentions her and shares conversations between the 2, displaying supporters that she continues to be concerned behind the scenes by providing suggestions to the previous president.
Larry Snowden, president of the “Club 47” fan group, stated he final noticed the previous first woman at a February gala hosted by the “Trumpettes,” a gaggle of feminine supporters. He stated he has by no means had a one-on-one interplay along with her, however that when he noticed her there, she was “so charming.”
“She was so happy, and she was smiling and accommodating anyone that wanted to come up and shake her hand or anything,” Snowden stated.
Snowden stated he does anticipate Melania Trump to indicate face all through the marketing campaign and to make key speeches, however that he additionally thinks that the previous president would “continue to be very protective of her.”
Gomez Licon reported from Miami. Related Press author Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
