Where in the world is Melania Trump?
The First Lady has not made any appearances during 2019 and is reportedly “in the planning phase” for the new
While Donald Trump has been keeping himself busy amid the longest government shutdown in U.S. history by beaming over a dining table full of McDonald’s and trash-talking people on Twitter, there’s one government official who’s been notably absent: Melania Trump. Though we are officially more than halfway through the first month of the year, the First Lady has made no official appearances—or any appearances, for that matter.
There have been, however, some signs that she’s around the White House. On January 13, she tweeted out photos of the White House covered in snow from the storm that hit Washington, adding three snowflake emojis to accompany the winter wonderland.
According to Melania’s spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, she’s been using the shutdown time to plan upcoming events. “We are in the planning phase for 2019 in terms of ‘Be Best’ and annual functions at the White House,” she wrote in an e-mail to The Washington Post, adding that Melania and her staff are “using this time for meetings and planning/strategy sessions.”
Thanks to the shutdown, her current staff has been cut in half from its usual 10 people to 5. The Post also noted that some of the First Lady’s duties have been cut as well, including overseeing the usual White House tours.
Melania being M.I.A. during the beginning of the year seems to be part of her brand. Last January, she didn’t make her first public appearance of 2018 until the State of the Union address on January 30. She stayed out of the spotlight after The Wall Street Journal revealed that her husband’s former lawyer Michael Cohen had paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about her alleged affair with the president.
So is Melania Trump waiting to make her illustrious return to public life during this year’s State of the Union? If the speech doesn’t happen, will she stay away all year? Only time can tell.
