A Most Sensitive Subject in the White House: Where Is Melania?

[milestogo]

Mrs. Trump has spent fewer than 14 days at the White House since her husband was inaugurated 108 days ago.

By Shawn McCreesh
May 7, 2025
Updated 5:12 p.m. ET

The lights never seem to be on and the shutters stay shut. As the weeks pass by at the White House, the corner of the residence long used by first ladies remains dark, because this first lady does not really live in Washington. Melania Trump vanishes from view for weeks at a time, holing up in Trump Tower in Manhattan or in Florida, where she can lie low at Mar-a-Lago. Administration officials say she is at the White House more often than the public knows, but when exactly, and for how long, these officials will not (or perhaps cannot) say for certain. It’s like having Greta Garbo as first lady.

Mrs. Trump is expected to reappear in the capital on Thursday to unveil a postage stamp honoring Barbara Bush, the former first lady, and to attend a ceremony for military mothers. But two people with knowledge of Mrs. Trump’s schedule said she had spent fewer than 14 days at the White House since her husband was inaugurated 108 days ago. Others say even that is a generous estimate. Officials in the East Wing and West Wing declined multiple requests for comment for this article. That the first lady’s whereabouts is among the most sensitive of subjects in this White House only adds to the intrigue.

“We haven’t seen such a low-profile first lady since Bess Truman, and that’s going way back in living human memory, nearly 80 years ago,” said Katherine Jellison, a historian at Ohio University whose research has focused on first ladies. She said that, like Mrs. Trump, Mrs. Truman spent much of her time running back to “her home base whenever she had the chance.” (In Mrs. Truman’s case, that was Independence, Mo.) “She just kind of liked her own private world,” Ms. Jellison said. The same is true of this first lady. She has hired staff to work for her in the East Wing, but she rarely goes into the office. Even regulars at Mar-a-Lago say they don’t often see Mrs. Trump around the premises.

Every marriage has its highs and lows, but as with so many other things, the Trumps are in a league of their own. In the span of just a few months last year, the couple endured a public trial about his philandering, two assassination attempts and a presidential campaign. The trial, which concerned hush money Donald J. Trump paid to a porn star, made for an especially challenging moment for the couple, two people with knowledge of their dynamic said. Mrs. Trump kept well away from the courthouse in Lower Manhattan and from the campaign that kicked into high gear in the weeks that followed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/us/politics/white-house-melania-absence.html

[Ocelot II]

1. Maybe she's having some kidney repair work done.

[choie]

2. If Jill Biden was MIA during Biden's presidency

it would have been such a “most sensitive subject”. There would be hollering all over the place.

[Permanut]

3. My best guess is she's still investigating Barack Obama's birth certificate .

She seemed very concerned about it in a 2011 interview with Joy Behar, when she stated that everyone wanted to see it, and that the birth certificate he presented was not a birth certificate.

[bamagal62]

4. I don't care.

Do you?

[usonian]

5. Donnie "two dolls" seems to be OK with it.

[AloeVera]

6. Oh my God.

[Skittles]

9. sorry but, that is RIDICULOUS

Trump, reading a BOOK?

[AloeVera]

10. No worries.

It's upside down.

[Lulu KC]

7. I really don't care

Do you?

[Skittles]

8. I really don't care, do you?

fuck that gold digging piece of SHIT

[sheshe2]

11. I heard she was deported.

She was an illegal alien, after all. She and her anchor baby were sent back to Slovenia. He has no use for her anymore.

[Dulcinea]

12. I read somewhere she's living mostly in New York City.

She wants to be near her son who's a freshman at NYU.

[CTyankee]

13. She didn't get her paycheck! No check, no Melania!

She doesn't work for nothing, ya know!