Melania Trump is snubbing the GOP’s midterm convention next week in Texas, where her husband will try to galvanize his party—some of whom are steering clear of him as well.
On The Daily Beast Podcast, political reporter Sarah Ewall-Wice and executive editor Hugh Dougherty discussed yet another example of the first lady having minimal time in the public eye with her husband, which the Daily Beast pointed out last month.
Melania, 56, has no plans to join the president in Dallas on Sept. 9 and 10, a White House official told the Washington Examiner. As of Friday, she has made only 40 public appearances this year, with her last coming in August at the Freedom 250 Grand Prix in Washington.
“I guess it comes as a surprise when you talk about tradition and the fact that first ladies are typically at party conventions with their husbands, the presidents,” Ewall-Wice said. “We’ve seen Melania show up at past conventions, but Melania is over it and is not showing up for this one. It comes after she did show up for the Republican National Convention in 2024 in Milwaukee, but also broke with tradition because she didn’t speak.”
“This was… I believe, certainly the first time this millennium—and I would imagine further back—that we have not heard from a first lady at a convention,” Dougherty said. “At the time, she was the former first lady and the candidate’s wife.”
The convention occurred a few weeks after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, but Melania still opted not to speak.
“She wouldn’t even wear an ear bandage in solidarity, as many of the other people at that convention did,” Dougherty noted.
“She did not speak there, and this time she’s not even showing up, which kind of is in character for her these days because she has shown up all of two times this entire summer, really,“ Ewall-Wice continued.
”We saw her at her husband’s birthday, we saw her one time in July, and we saw her recently for the racing in Washington, D.C., after a month’s absence from the White House and from public view. So, not going to be there next week, not going to speak next week. It’ll be interesting if she even acknowledges it on social media in some way. But at this point, the first lady is not paying attention and not engaged when it comes to the upcoming election in any way.”
When Melania reemerged at the White House on Aug. 20 after more than a month out of the spotlight, she tried to joke about it.
“I heard you missed me,” she said. “Here I am!”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
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