The first lady vanishes

The New York Times calculates Melania has spent fewer than 14 days at the White House since her husband was inaugurated 111 days ago. Its report said the lights never seem to be on, and the shutters stay shut in the corner of the residence used by first ladies. She “vanishes from view for weeks at a time, holing up in Trump Tower in Manhattan or in Florida, where she can lie low at Mar-a-Lago,” it said. Trump is directing the gilt makeover at the Oval Office, usurping the first lady’s normal role. But administration officials said she is at the White House more often than the public knows.

Last week, Melania gave her first public remarks since the couple returned to the White House, at a reception for military mothers. She is running a public awareness campaign, Be Best, focusing on combating cyberbullying and revenge porn.

Over Easter she threw the traditional Easter egg roll (sponsored by YouTube, Amazon and Meta) where she read a book, Bunny With a Big Heart, to schoolchildren. She was with her husband when he went to Pope Francis’s funeral in Rome. In her memoir Melania said she had been sending a “discreet yet impactful” message by wearing a jacket emblazoned with the slogan “I really don’t care, Do U?” on a 2018 visit to the US-Mexico border to meet children separated from their parents.

Critics said it was callous, but Melania wrote that it was a message to the media over anonymous-sourced reporting. She wrote she had told her husband his policy of separating families was “simply unacceptable”. The impact of her role in the second Trump White House remains to be seen. A $40m Amazon documentary is in the works that promises a behind-the-scenes look at her life. Melania told Fox & Friends’ Ainsley Earhardt that shooting began in November.

The pull to New York, where her son, Barron, 19, is at university, is also strong.

Asked earlier this year if she would live in the White House, Melania told Earhardt that she would “be in the White House,” but added, “You know, when I need to be in New York, I will be in New York. When I need to be in Palm Beach, I will be in Palm Beach.”

Photographs by Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty and Jim Watson/AFP/Getty