A very delicate subject in the White House: Where is Melania?

The lights never seem to be lit and the blinds remain closed. As the weeks spend in the White House, the corner of the residence has long used by the early ladies remains dark, because this first lady doesn’t really live in Washington.

Melania Trump disappears from sight by weeks, taking refuge on Trump Tower in Manhattan or Florida, where she can hide on sea-lame. Government officials say she is in the White House more often than the public knows, but when exactly, and how long, these authorities cannot (or may not) say for sure.

It’s like having Greta Garbo as a first lady.

Trump is expected to reappear in the capital on Thursday to unravel a postal seal in honor of Barbara Bush, the former first lady, and to attend a ceremony for military mothers. But two people with knowledge of Trump’s agenda said she spent less than 14 days at the White House since her husband took office 108 days ago. Others say that even this is a generous estimate. East and wing wing officials refused several commentary requests for this report.

The fact that the whereabouts of the first lady is among the most delicate subjects in this white house only increases the intrigue.

“We have not seen such a discreet first lady since Bess Truman, and that dates back to human memory for a long time, almost 80 years ago,” said Katherine Jellison, a historian at the University of Ohio, whose research focused on first ladies. She said that, like Trump, Truman spent much of her time running back to “her base whenever she had the opportunity.” (In the case of Truman, it was Independence, Missouri.)

“She just liked her own private world,” said Jellison.

The same applies to the first lady. She hired employees to work for her in the East Wing, but rarely goes to the office. Even frequent sea-lag goers say they don’t often see Trump there.

Every wedding has its ups and downs, but as in so many other things, Trumps are in a separate category. In just a few months last year, the couple faced a public trial about his betrayals, two murder attempts and a presidential campaign.

The trial, which involved the payment of bribery that Donald Trump paid to a porn actress, represented an especially challenging moment for the couple, according to two people with knowledge of the dynamics between them. Melania Trump remained far from court in Lower Manhattan and the campaign that gained strength in the following weeks.

The attempted murder of her husband during the summer – and a subsequent incident that a shooter approached Donald Trump in one of his golf fields – deeply scared a woman who had been concerned about her family’s safety, according to two people familiar with her thoughts. The first time Trump took office in 2017, she was even worried about leaving the car to participate in the parade.

This time, at the White House, Trump took some functions that would normally fit a first lady. It is not she who carefully selects the lamps for the White House residence, redesign the rose garden, receives groups of tourists in the East Wing or organizes receptions for the month of women’s history. It is him.

It’s been a decade that husband and wife have come down together for that golden escalator towards national political life. Now he has come to a moment when he is full of power and self -confidence as never before. However, as he expands, she shrinks.

Trumps, however, share a common approach to public positions. Both know how to profit from the exhibition. In January, Melania Trump launched her own cryptocurrency. “You can buy $ Melania now,” she wrote on social networks on the eve of her husband’s second possession.

And then there is the agreement she closed with Amazon, estimated at about $ 40 million, for a documentary that offers a “behind the scenes” vision of her life as a first lady.

What can this show? It’s hard to say exactly.

“You serve the country”

Trump waited for months to move to the White House last time. But this happened because his son was only 10 years old, and his mother devoted the time necessary to organize his education and the transition to a new city. At that time, Trump’s parents were ubiquitous in the White House as she learned to deal with the role. Trump’s mother, Amalija Knavs, died in January 2024. Currently, Trump spends a lot of time with her father, Viktor.

Barron Trump is 19 now. He is finishing his first year at New York University and is increasingly independent. Still, there is a part of Trump that remains attached to the maternal and protective role she plays in her life, people say around her.

“You know, I feel that, like children, we have them until 18, 19,” Trump told Fox News in a rare interview he gave in January before his inauguration. “We teach them. We guide them. And then we give them wings to fly.”

They asked her where she planned to spend most of her time this semester.

“I’ll be at the White House,” she replied. “And you know, when I need to be in New York, I’ll be in New York. When I need to be in Palm Beach, I’ll be in Palm Beach. But my priority is, you know, be a first lady, be a wife. And when we get there, on January 20, you will serve the country.”

Since Trump is rarely seen or heard, sometimes she appears give an idea of ​​how she sees her role. Some of their choices are aligned with the traditional duties of a first lady-to some extent.

She was next to her husband to chair the Easter Egg Roll event from the White House last month, but even that raised ethical and legal questions after it was revealed that corporate sponsors were allowed to contribute. (All the money raised would be destined to the White House Historical Association, a non -profit private educational organization founded by Jacqueline Kennedy in 1961.)

On April 1, she spoke in the State Department for the awards of international women of courage, the first time she was seen in public in Washington in weeks.

In the White House, the first lady hired her own team in the east wing. But what to do when the boss doesn’t come to the office? “It was an honor to receive these young curious gardeners at the White House last week!” Says the caption of a recent video posted on Instagram’s “Flotus” page.

But flotus itself does not appear in the video. It’s not clear if she was there.

Filming teams have been seen surrounding Trump lately. But mostly Amazon’s documentary about his life, as well as his theme, is surrounded by mystery. Hollywood documentary artists and executives claim that the $ 40 million Amazon would have paid for the documentary, of which Trump is an executive producer, represent dozens of millions of dollars more than such projects would normally surrender. Amazon has refused several commentary requests for this article, as well as the film’s director, Brett Ratner.

Just as Trump’s presence can be an interesting view, his absence can.

When the first group of tourists passed the east wing, it was the president who appeared to surprise them. “The first lady worked hard to make her perfect,” he told the group. But she wasn’t there.

During Trump’s first term, Trump replaced and restored the roseiral. In this term, the president plans to pave the place to turn it into a courtyard so he can receive outdoor visits. Trump was initially bothered by her husband’s plan, according to two people informed on the subject. Since then, she has received guarantees that the roseiras will be preserved.

She also accepted the idea of ​​the ballroom that he so insists on building at the White House – after they told him that the construction would not happen very close to the residence.

A person who has known Trump for a long time is Paolo Zampolli, a former agent of Italian models who first saw her in Milan in the 1990s. The Trumps say it was Zampolli who first introduced them in 1998 at the Kat Kat Club in Manhattan. He refers to Trump reverently as “the lady”. Any thorough questions about the absence of the lady in Washington, he said, were unfounded. “She loves the White House,” he insisted, “and loves the role of serving as our first lady.”

When the president takes his big trip around the Middle East next week, to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, the first lady is not expected to go with him.

But she accompanied him to Vatican City to Pope Francis’ funeral.

When they landed in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday afternoon, it was the 55th birthday of the first lady. The president gave him a kiss on the face. She got into a car, he got into Marine One and each went their way.