Former President Trump went down the line at his rally near Miami on Tuesday as his family watched from the front row.
He shouted out his son Eric Trump and his daughter-in-law Lara Trump. He recognized Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, as well as two of his grandchildren in the audience. And he singled out his son, Barron Trump, who was making his first appearance at a Trump rally since graduating high school.
But there was no sign of former first lady Melania Trump, continuing a trend that has underlined much of the former president’s 2024 campaign.
The former first lady has hardly attended any public campaign events with her husband, but she is expected to appear during the upcoming GOP convention in Wisconsin. She is not scheduled to speak, further fueling the narrative around her lack of involvement in the former president’s 2024 campaign.
“At the end of the day, I think people vote for the presidential candidate, not their spouse or their vice president, or their staff,” said Alex Conant, a GOP strategist who has worked on multiple presidential campaigns. “It’s about the person at the top of the ticket. Sure, family dynamics can be a distraction or an asset, but they’re not likely to be decisive.”
The former first lady’s office did not respond to requests for comment about her plans for the Republican convention, which begins Monday.
Former President Trump has frequently dismissed speculation about his wife’s absence from the campaign trail, including after he was convicted on 34 felony counts over a hush money scheme to keep quiet an affair he’d had with porn actor Stormy Daniels. Trump has denied the affair and said he plans to appeal the verdict.
“I have a wonderful wife who has to listen to this stuff all the time,” Trump said in early June. “She’s fine. I think it’s very tough on her, but she’s fine.”
The role of first ladies during political conventions has evolved over the decades, said Katherine Jellison, a professor at Ohio University with an expertise on first ladies and women in politics.
First ladies began attending major party conventions regularly around the 1950s, she said, and it wasn’t until Pat Nixon spoke at the 1972 Republican convention that it became regular for first ladies or spouses of candidates to address the party gatherings.
Melania Trump delivered remarks at the 2016 RNC, a speech that quickly attracted controversy over allegations that it plagiarized portions of a previous Michelle Obama speech. The former first lady also spoke at the 2020 convention, delivering remarks in support of then-President Trump from the White House amid the coronavirus pandemic.
But the former first lady has mostly been absent from her husband’s 2024 White House bid.
She appeared at Trump’s campaign launch in 2022, but she has not joined him at any of his campaign rallies; she did not appear on stage with him following victories in the Iowa caucuses, New Hampshire primary or Super Tuesday primaries; and she did not attend the first debate between Trump and President Biden.
The first lady hosted a fundraiser for the LGBTQ group Log Cabin Republicans at Mar-a-Lago in Florida in April, hosted another fundraiser for the group in New York City this week, and she appeared alongside Trump in March when the two cast their ballots in the Florida primary.
“There isn’t precedent for many events and choices in Trump world. Melania Trump was certainly not a conventional first lady,” Jellison said.
Jellison said it would be eyebrow-raising if “any recent first lady who had spent many many years in the public eye being the conventional political wife” suddenly took such a low-profile approach.
“But since Ms. Trump never played that conventional role to begin with and supporters don’t expect her to, the fact she has chosen to largely step out of the spotlight isn’t so surprising,” Jellison said.
Melania Trump’s absence from the campaign trail has been brought into even sharper focus given the visibility of first lady Jill Biden.
The first lady was already a prominent surrogate for President Biden, traveling abroad with him, attending donor receptions around the country and launching campaign outreach initiatives.
But Jill Biden has become a central figure in the campaign in the aftermath of the June 27 debate in which her husband delivered a halting, disastrous performance that has sparked calls from some Democrats for him to step aside as the nominee.
The first lady has faced intense scrutiny from some who argue she is urging her husband to stay in the race despite the concerns of elected officials and donors. Even former President Trump has suggested Jill Biden does not want her husband to drop out.
But the first lady has kept her focus on defeating Trump during recent campaign stops and sought to reassure voters who may be wavering on supporting her husband.
“For all the talk out there about this race, Joe has made it clear that he’s all in,” the first lady said in North Carolina as she launched a veterans and military families initiative for the campaign.
“That’s the decision that he’s made, and just as he has always supported my career, I am all in, too,” she said. “I know you are too or you wouldn’t be here today. And with four more years, Joe will continue to fight for you.”
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