United States: Where has Melania Trump gone?

Radio silence in the East Wing. The area of ​​the White House reserved for the first ladies is plunged into darkness. The shutters are closed. Weeks pass, and Melania Trump doesn't show up. Or very rarely. Two sources familiar with the First Lady's schedule revealed to the New York Times that she had spent fewer than fourteen days at the White House since her husband's inauguration, now 108 days ago. Others consider this figure generous. And while Trump administration officials assured the American daily that the former model graces the White House with her presence far more often than one might think, they deflected the matter when asked for details.

Leaving the presidential palace for Trump Tower in New York or the discretion of Mar-a-Lago in Florida, the First Lady is nevertheless expected in the capital this Thursday, May 8. She is to unveil a stamp bearing the image of her predecessor Barbara Bush, wife and mother of George H. and George W. Bush Bush, before attending a ceremony in honor of military mothers. It's a very small number of appearances for these repeated absences to become one of the most sensitive issues in the White House in nearly four months.

"We haven't seen a First Lady this private since Bess Truman, and that was almost 80 years ago," Katherine Jellison, a historian at Ohio State University who researches presidential partners, told the New York Times . Like Melania Trump, the wife of Harry S. Truman (the 33rd president of the United States) spent much of her time returning "to her home base whenever she could." For Bess Truman, that was Independence, Missouri, the city where she was born (and died). "She just liked to have her own private world," the American historian explains.

The same goes for the current first lady, who is conspicuous by her absence. Except that unlike Donald Trump's first term (2016-2020), this time around, the American orator is forced to assume some of his wife's protocol duties. He is the one who chose the White House lighting fixtures, he is the one who organized receptions for Women's History Month. He, too, is once again distinguishing himself as an environmental destroyer with his desire to concrete over and transform into a terrace the rose garden that Melania Trump had restored during her previous term. The latter was reportedly "embarrassed" by her husband's plan, and has since obtained a promise that the rose bushes will not be affected.

Even more surprising, it was Donald Trump who appeared when the very first group of tourists came to visit the East Wing. "The First Lady worked incredibly hard to make everything perfect," he assured. But she wasn't there. However, don't panic: Melania Trump was indeed at her husband's side to preside over the White House Easter egg drive last month... Just not in a video posted on her own Instagram account, "FLOTUS" (First Lady of the United States of America), introducing the new East Wing staff.

As the New York Times points out, during Donald Trump's first term, Melania waited months before moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. But that's because her son, Barron Trump , was only 10 years old, and she was keen to organize his schooling in their new city. Today, the young man is 19 and studying at New York University. "You know, I feel like we're accompanying our children until they're 18 or 19," Melania Trump justified herself on Fox News in a rare interview in January before Trump's new inauguration. "We teach them. We guide them. And then we give them wings to fly."

The health of the spouses' relationship could also play a role in its elusive nature. Between Donald Trump's public trial for infidelity— he was found guilty in January in the case of secret payments intended to buy the silence of porn star Stormy Daniels —and the attempted assassination of the American president, which left her "deeply frightened," Melania Trump seems to be accumulating reasons to distance herself from anything related to the White House. It doesn't matter if it contradicts the answer she gave to Fox News about how she would allocate her time: "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 absolute priority is, you know, being a mother, a First Lady, and a wife."