It's been 25 days since we last saw Melania Trump. While her public disappearance isn't totally surprising (Melania seems about as happy to be in the White House as the rest of us are to have her there), it does make you wonder: Could she be sick or is she just sick of her husband?
I was pondering Melania's disappearance yesterday on Twitter, and had this exchange:
Point taken. Melania does apparently have some kind of kidney issue and I was sort of making light of her being dead (which, if you believe the White House, she definitely is not). Still, while I wouldn't say she's the least culpable of the Trump family (that honor is reserved for Tiffany), I do have at least a little sympathy for the woman. Yes, she married Donald J. Trump, and there's absolutely no excuse for that (not even citizenship and/or access to Trump's "vast" personal fortune), but can you imagine waking up to that man? The thought of sharing a bed with him is stomach-turning. The fact that she's actually had sex with that guy makes me feel pity, not hate... although I pity her much less than I do the rest of us who didn't vote for him.
Plus, while I don't generally agree with blaming the wife for the sins of the husband (or vice versa), Melania is not exactly an innocent bystander. In 2011, back when the idea of President Donald Trump was just Apprentice fan fiction, Melania was on the HLN's Joy Behar Show. When Behar asked if Trump was seriously considering a run for President or if this was all a PR stunt, Melania said, "Look, he doesn't need the publicity stunt.... He's one of the best, the most brilliant negotiator mind out there. Like genuisest mind out there." It's hard to tell if she really believes this or if she's just parrotting Trump's pillow talk, but it's clear that lying is a family value: When Behar asks about Donald's repeated insistence that Barack Obama was born in Kenya (despite all evidence to the contrary), Melania, again, goes along with her man, arguing that Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate wasn't valid. And then, during the 2016 campaign, Melania said that the women accusing Donald Trump of sexual assault and/or harassment were part of a Democratic campaign to discredit her husband. And now she lives in the White House... at least when she isn't avoiding her husband.
After weeks of public speculation about where Melania has been hiding (Did she take Barron and run? Good for her.), the White House says that Melania will attend an event with Trump Monday evening to honor families who've lost loved ones in military service. Will she actually show up? Who knows. But if she does, I hope the cameras are there, watching. There's so little good news coming out of the White House these days that the least they could do is bring us a new gif: He reaches for her hand, and she, perhaps channeling the American public, swats him away.
