Melania Trump has not been seen in three weeks, and as speculation grows about where she might have gone, one senior White House official said that Donald Trump is “hiding something” about the reason for his wife’s long absence.
Melania unexpectedly left in mid-May to undergo what the White House described as a routine surgery to treat a benign kidney condition, one that kept her in the hospital for several days. But upon leaving the hospital and returning to the White House, the first lady has seemingly disappeared. Now, one senior White House official tells Politico that the president may be hiding something about the real reason his wife is missing.
“It’s expected that Trump people are hiding something,” a senior administration official told the news outlet.
This is not the first time that Melania Trump has unexpectedly left the spotlight. Last summer, as she was preparing to leave her home in Trump Tower to move to the White House, Melania was also out of public eye for more than two weeks.
Her most recent absence has given way to a number of conspiracy theories, including one that spread across Twitter claiming that Melania had moved back to her former home in New York. Some Twitter users believed that her personal Twitter account (not the official one for the first lady) had its location switch back to New York, though this was disputed by others who said that the older account has always been set to New York.
The conspiracy theory seemed to dovetail with the ever-present rumors that Melania Trump was planning to leave her husband and initiate a divorce. There was a series of stories claiming that Melania was tired of the humiliation of her husband’s alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels and was planning to split up with him.
Some of the reports suggested the Melania was seeking some space from her husband.
“At this point Melania feels more humiliated than angry — but, that’s not to say she isn’t angry, because she is, very,” a source told Hollywood Life . “However, she feels embarrassed and disrespected the most, like the whole world is laughing at her. For this drama to play out so publicly is beyond excruciating for Melania, and she can’t stand to even look at Donald right now.”
Melania Trump Is Back to Work in ‘Internal Meetings’ After Hospitalization and 19 Days Out of Sight https://t.co/vyMU2WmYdW
— People (@people) May 29, 2018
While it is not clear when Melania Trump will be seen again, it appears it will not be longer than a month. As Politico noted, she is scheduled to appear at a summer gathering for members of Congress, and Melania’s spokeswoman said the first lady is still active behind the scenes.
