Melania Trump, in incognito mode, enters Trump Tower on June 12, 2023.
Photo: James Devaney/GC Images
The phrase “Where is Melania?” has always been more of a taunt than an actual question. The meme emerged last fall when someone — presumably one of Donald Trump’s primary rivals — distributed “missing” flyers featuring the former First Lady and had a plane fly a “Where’s Melania” banner at Iowa campaign events. No one was actually worried about Melania’s whereabouts; the point was that she wasn’t by her husband’s side at political events.
But maybe we should be a bit concerned about the former First Lady’s habit of lying low in various Trump residences. On Tuesday evening, the New York Post reported that Melania and her son, Barron, had been spotted for the first time since Donald Trump’s conviction in his Manhattan hush-money trial on Thursday, May 30.
The photos are not remarkable unless you think it’s weird to dress up for a car ride and own multiple garment bags emblazoned with your initials. What does seem weird is the Post’s claim that Melania hadn’t left Trump Tower for 12 days:
The sighting marks the first time Melania has broken cover in nearly two weeks, with the 54-year-old believed to have been holed up in her lavish penthouse since May 23.
According to reports, the former first lady was there when former President Donald Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal evidence of hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
Melania and Barron weren’t setting out for a grand European tour; they were just heading to another Trump property in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Obviously, staying inside your three-floor, gold-coated penthouse apartment is a lot different than not leaving your tiny studio apartment for two weeks. But it still doesn’t seem all that healthy — especially because everyone in the Trump penthouse is just grousing about the guilty verdict (which Melania hasn’t said a word about publicly). On Friday, “Page Six” reported that the mood in Trumps’ apartment was grim:
Another insider told Page Six of the scene yesterday in Trumpworld when the verdict came in: “It’s like a funeral … There was hope all day and then none!”
The source added, “Everyone says Melania and the entire family are rallying around the former president. But the mood is nonetheless gloomy and gloomier right now. It’s definitely viewed as a downer at Mar-a-Lago.”
A big Trump donor also summed it up by saying: “What a bummer!”
That same report said Melania and Barron had avoided detection when entering the building by using a side door:
It’s unclear exactly when Melania, 54, and Barron, 18, arrived at the family’s Manhattan home, but a source said, “Melania and Barron were smuggled in through the side entrance.”
So perhaps Melania has gotten some fresh air and natural-light exposure in the past 12 days; the Post just didn’t catch it because she isn’t using the main entrance.
It still seems weird that Melania is spending so much of her time skulking from one Trump property to another. Unlike her husband, she’s not a convicted criminal.
