It might sound like a computer simulation of an ’80s TV movie gone awry, but for two weeks the biggest question in Washington has been: Where has the first lady gone?
Melania Trump has not been seen in public since May 10, the day before she began a six-day stay at Walter Reed Military Hospital for what her office called a “procedure” for a “benign kidney condition.” Second lady Karen Pence has filled in for her at some events, and today she was absent from the president’s side when he spoke at Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day.
On Friday, answering reporters’ questions on the White House lawn about the first lady’s whereabouts, President Trump said, “She’s doing great. Right there. She’s doing great. She’s looking at us, right there,” and pointed to a window in the White House. Reporters turned to see, but there was no one at the window, the “Washington Post” reported.
On Thursday, Melania Trump tweeted appreciation for a Navy SEAL who was awarded the Medal of Honor, her first tweet in five days, and her spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, said the first lady was “doing very well and has been participating in several internal meetings with her staff to plan upcoming events.”
Today a Memorial Day message was tweeted from the @FLOTUS account. “On #MemorialDay we honor the many Americans who laid down their lives for our great country,” it read. “As one nation under God, we come together to remember that freedom isn’t free. Thank you to all the service members & their families who sacrifice so much to keep us safe.”
On #MemorialDay we honor the many Americans who laid down their lives for our great country. As one nation under God, we come together to remember that freedom isn’t free. Thank you to all the service members & their families who sacrifice so much to keep us safe. ?? pic.twitter.com/H6yhNQXyPg
— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) May 28, 2018
But there is no indication of when she might return to the public eye.
Melania Trump’s six-day hospital stay raised eyebrows. With little detail from the first lady’s office to go on, medical experts theorized that the procedure she underwent was an embolization, which usually doesn’t involve a hospital stay at all. “It’s like literally an outpatient procedure,” said Dr. Eleanor D. Lederer, a professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and past president of the American Society of Nephrology. “You go in, you have it done, you lie in bed for a while to keep the blood vessel from bleeding and then you go home.”
