Melania Trump has spent less than a fortnight at the White House in the 15 weeks since her husband was sworn in as president for a second term.
The first lady was due to appear in the East Room on Thursday to unveil a postage stamp in honour of one of her predecessors, Barbara Bush. She is known, however, to prefer staying at Mar-a-Lago or in New York, where the couple’s son, Barron, is in his first year at university.
She was absent for most of Trump’s presidential campaign last year and analysis by The New York Times shows she has spent fewer than 14 days at the White House since January 20, when Trump was inaugurated. Insiders say that is a generous estimate and she has in fact spent even less time in Washington.
The 54-year-old former model was said to be angered by last year’s criminal case in which her husband was convicted of fraud over payments to a porn actress, Stormy Daniels, in an attempt to hide their sexual relationship. The encounter occurred in 2006, a year after Melania and Donald married.
Trump and Melania Knauss, as she was then known, in New York in 2004
STUART RONSON/AP
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Known to be a private person who obsessively guards her independence, the first lady did not appear with her husband at the trial, or during the other legal cases he was involved in between his presidential terms. Reports indicate that she is rarely seen at her office in either the White House or at Mar-a-Lago.
Some of those close to her say that in fact some of the cases involving Trump brought the couple closer together.
“When she found out years ago about Stormy Daniels, she was the most upset she’s been,” says Mary Jordan, a journalist at the Washington Post and author of The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump. “She was furious and it was a very low period, but the trials and the cases in court have infuriated her and drawn her closer to Trump. She believes that he has been persecuted.
“And Barron is critical here too. Melania is enormously close to Barron and he is really into the fact that his father is president. Melania and Donald are now spending more time together and appearing as more of a couple than they have in the past. They’ve been in a bunker together and they’ve come out of it closer.”
The Trumps with their son, Barron, on election night in Mar-a-Lago
ALEX BRANDON/AP
She moved to America in her mid-twenties and was always determined to make it to the top, although she will be forgiven for not having the White House in mind when she married Trump, 24 years her senior.
She is also understood to have been deeply concerned after the two assassination attempts against her husband last year. Part of her wish to spend more time at the family’s apartment in New York’s Trump Tower is to try and ensure the safety of Barron, who turned 19 in March.