Melania Trump 'Disappears' three weeks, US Media go wild
Since May 10, the first lady was invisible. She briefly appeared on Monday.
Singapore summit, investigation by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, trade war, angry tweets… Donald Trump's presidency provides food for thought, speculation and commentary for all editorial staff in the United States and the rest of the world. Yet at more or less regular intervals, Melania Trump, the "stealth" wife of the 45th President of the United States, ceases to be a journalistic side project.
For a few days, reporters forgot about the unspoken agreement to say "leave Melania and Barron alone" - Donald Trump's youngest child. As if speculating on the First Lady's wardrobe, her silence after the revelations about her husband's relationship with pornstar Stormy Daniels or the way she holds her husband's hand or not could help. understand Trumpland.
Over the past three weeks, it has been the first lady's "absence" that has driven the media machine into a frenzy. To the point that, Monday, June 4, his "reappearance" made the headlines.
"Tonight, @ POTUS [the US President] and I were honored to honor our fallen heroes," Melania Trump wrote on Twitter, accompanying the post with a series of photos showing her in the East Wing of the White House seated next to Donald Trump at a reception honoring the families of fallen American soldiers.
Tonight @POTUS & I were honored to pay tribute to our fallen heroes. Thank you to the Gold Star families that joined us in celebration & remembrance. pic.twitter.com/6oSh1t88G7
— Melania Trump 45 Archived (@FLOTUS45) June 5, 2018
She also appears ... fleetingly in a video posted by Jena Greene, a reporter for the conservative DC Caller website.
First public appearance by @FLOTUS in just under a month at the Gold Star Families reception to ihht. Good to see h… https://t.co/MVdLmh2B2C
- JenaMGreene (@Jena Greene)
Surgery
But that wasn't enough to quell the rumors. Especially since the first lady will not accompany her husband neither to the G7 summit, this weekend in Quebec, nor to the Singapore summit, with North Korea.
The last time Melania Trump had been seen in public, alone or accompanied, was on the night of May 10, when she came to welcome, along with the president, three former American prisoners whom Pyongyang had just released.
On May 14, the White House announced that she had undergone "an embolization procedure to treat a benign kidney problem."
Since then, nothing: she had disappeared from radar screens ... becoming invisible after just launching the Be Best initiative against harassment on social media.
Fans of conspiracy theory - famous or not, like Bette Midler - have gone to great lengths to speculate on the absence. "She left the White House and returned to live in New York"; "She collaborates with prosecutor Robert Mueller"; "It is hosted by the Obama couple"; "She has undergone cosmetic surgery and is recovering," summarize the Politico website and the Washington Post.
“Have you seen this person? "
The CNN television channel bounced back, publishing a calendar showing the days of the first lady's absence, trying to justify its questions about this disappearance, while Fox News, a channel deemed closer to conservative theses, took up the phraseology from the White House who criticized the "rabid" attitude of the mainstream media to Melania Trump.
In New York’s East Village, posters were posted: “Gone. Melania Trump. Have you seen this person? ", Reports the East Village Patch. Others prefer to laugh, believing they have deciphered a cry for help in an apocryphal tweet from Melania Trump.
It doesn't matter if CNBC Washington correspondent Simon Javers reported spotting her on May 29 in the west wing of the White House. The next day, she tried to reassure her Twitter followers:
I see the media is working overtime speculating where I am & what I'm doing. Rest assured, I'm here at the @WhiteHouse w my family, feeling great, & working hard on behalf of children & the American people!
— Melania Trump 45 Archived (@FLOTUS45) May 30, 2018
“I see the media are working overtime speculating where I am and what I'm doing. Rest assured, I am here in the White House, with my family, I am doing well and working hard for the children and the American people! "
The first lady's communications team struggled to crunch the rumor: “Guess and nonsense. Ms. Trump has always been a strong, independent woman who puts her family and, of course, her health first and foremost, and that's not going to change because of rabid reporters, ”said Stephanie Grisham, spokesperson for Melania Trump.
Recent fascination for the first lady
The AP agency says Melania Trump is not the first wife of a president to escape media attention. Before her, Bess Truman had been particularly low-key, preferring to spend time in Missouri alongside her mother.
Nancy Reagan was also missing for a few weeks after a mastectomy, in October 1987, before resuming activity, but out of media attention.
The Associated Press reported that media attention for the first lady has exploded with President Obama leveraging the development of social media to promote the Michelle Obama brand. With success.
