AFP, New York :
Two weeks after her husband’s inauguration, questions are mounting about what kind of first lady Melania Trump will be.
The 46-year-old former model wowed the crowds at his swearing-in ceremony and inaugural balls dressed in Ralph Lauren powder blue and a vanilla crepe, ticking fashion boxes and suggesting that the mother of one was anxious to step up to her new role.
Since then, however, she has not been seen at official events, is not living in the White House and is still putting together her staff.
She was last spotted by the president’s side at an inter-faith church service on January 21 before making the reported 90-minute commute home to New York by helicopter, plane and motorcade the following day. With no imminent plans to move to Washington, she’s said to want the couple’s 10-year-old son Barron to stay at his school at least until the end of the academic year.
On Tuesday, she was conspicuously absent when Trump announced his Supreme Court pick. Vice President Mike Pence and Neil Gorsuch brought their wives. Even Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric made the journey from New York.
On Wednesday, the president’s daughter Ivanka accompanied him to Delaware to honor a fallen Navy SEAL. Unlike her stepmother, Ivanka has already moved from New York with her husband, White House advisor Jared Kushner.
Asked in December if he would be lonely rattling around the White House on his own, then president-elect Donald Trump told Fox News: “No, I’ll be working.”
Never in modern times-when Americans are accustomed to having visible and active first ladies-has a president’s wife not moved straight to Washington.
“Certainly in that time we haven’t seen a phenomenon such as this where the first lady delays for at least several months moving into the White House,” said Katherine Jellison, history professor at Ohio University.
Melania’s absence has prompted speculation in the media, which Trump’s senior advisor Stephen Bannon has likened to “the opposition” for its tough, critical coverage of the president’s campaign and his first two weeks in office.
“Whither Melania Trump?” 12 days without a public sighting,” CNN said. “Where is Melania?” asked The Washington Post. “Separate Lives,” ran a headline in celebrity magazine US Weekly.
Two weeks after her husband’s inauguration, questions are mounting about what kind of first lady Melania Trump will be.
The 46-year-old former model wowed the crowds at his swearing-in ceremony and inaugural balls dressed in Ralph Lauren powder blue and a vanilla crepe, ticking fashion boxes and suggesting that the mother of one was anxious to step up to her new role.
Since then, however, she has not been seen at official events, is not living in the White House and is still putting together her staff.
She was last spotted by the president’s side at an inter-faith church service on January 21 before making the reported 90-minute commute home to New York by helicopter, plane and motorcade the following day. With no imminent plans to move to Washington, she’s said to want the couple’s 10-year-old son Barron to stay at his school at least until the end of the academic year.
On Tuesday, she was conspicuously absent when Trump announced his Supreme Court pick. Vice President Mike Pence and Neil Gorsuch brought their wives. Even Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric made the journey from New York.
On Wednesday, the president’s daughter Ivanka accompanied him to Delaware to honor a fallen Navy SEAL. Unlike her stepmother, Ivanka has already moved from New York with her husband, White House advisor Jared Kushner.
Asked in December if he would be lonely rattling around the White House on his own, then president-elect Donald Trump told Fox News: “No, I’ll be working.”
Never in modern times-when Americans are accustomed to having visible and active first ladies-has a president’s wife not moved straight to Washington.
“Certainly in that time we haven’t seen a phenomenon such as this where the first lady delays for at least several months moving into the White House,” said Katherine Jellison, history professor at Ohio University.
Melania’s absence has prompted speculation in the media, which Trump’s senior advisor Stephen Bannon has likened to “the opposition” for its tough, critical coverage of the president’s campaign and his first two weeks in office.
“Whither Melania Trump?” 12 days without a public sighting,” CNN said. “Where is Melania?” asked The Washington Post. “Separate Lives,” ran a headline in celebrity magazine US Weekly.
