First Lady Melania Trump was last seen in public on May 10, 24 days ago. On Monday night, she is slated to make her first semi-public appearance at a White House event with Gold Star families—an event that is closed to the press.
Trump has been out of the public eye since days before she underwent an embolization procedure for a “benign kidney condition” at Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland on May 14.
After disappearing for weeks after what was apparently a minor medical procedure, rumors have swirled about the first lady’s whereabouts. (It hasn’t helped that Melania Trump did not accompany her husband to Camp David over the weekend, as she has on past visits.) Some have suggested she was actually getting cosmetic surgery; others said her absence is a sign of her and Donald Trump’s crumbling marriage. The most conspiracy-minded say they believe she’s dead—an assertion the First Lady’s office has of course shot down.
The White House has also tried, unsuccessfully, to put these rumors to bed. The First Lady’s Twitter account sent out this (clearly ghostwritten) missive:
Then, Donald Trump gave this slightly unsettling statement about his wife’s whereabouts (emphasis added):
So far, the president’s attempts to put to rest questions about his wife’s whereabouts have only added to the confusion.
“Right there,” Trump said when asked about his wife’s health earlier this month, eerily pointing up at an empty window in the East Wing. “She’s doing great. Just look at us, right there.”
Just one week ago, CNBC reporter Eamon Javers said he spotted the First Lady walking in the West Wing. Spooky!
Is Melania Trump actually Catherine in Wuthering Heights, haunting her Heathcliff through the halls of the East Wing? We’ll find out later today!
Wherever Melania is, we hope she is somewhere out there, being best.