The whereabouts of Melania Trump have many asking ‘Where is America’s first lady?’ across the globe.
“60 Minutes Australia,” a version of the American news magazine show of the same name, spotlighted Melania’s apparent absence since her husband Donald Trump returned to the presidency for the second time.
Melania has reportedly spent less than a full month at the White House following the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20. The former model has appeared at limited events including the swearing-in ceremony wearing a large-brimmed hat that covered her eyes.
Trump biographer Michael Wolff was among the talking heads tapped to provide commentary for the “60 Minutes Australia” 20-minute exploration into the state of the Trumps’ marriage.
“I asked someone very close to them. I said, ‘So what’s going on?’ And this person looked at me like I was a real dunce, and then said, ‘She hates his f—king guts!’” Wolff recalled.
When asked why Melania would hate her husband, the “Fire and Fury” author responded, “[Trump] has a long history of relationships with other women, porn stars, and the like.”
Donald, 78, was married twice before tying the knot with Melania, 55, in January 2005. The couple has one child together, 19-year-old Barron Trump.
According to adult film star Stormy Daniels, she had a one-night stand with Trump in 2006, just months after Melania gave birth to Barron. Donald has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels.
In May 2024, Trump was convicted on 34 state charges in New York for falsifying business records to conceal payments made to Daniels as hush money. He became the first person to serve as the president of the United States and be a convicted felon.
Former CNN reporter Kate Bennett also appeared during the “60 Minutes Australia” segment, to explain Melania’s wardrobe, suggesting that her decision to wear a bright pink blouse, a wide-brimmed hat, or an all-white suit served as a series of silent statements toward her husband’s scandals.
Wolff later recalled his first meeting with Melania at the real estate mogul’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, whom he described as “opportunistic,” “calculated,” and “transactional.”
“During the first White House [term], she wasn’t there. During this White House [term], she’s not there. Where is Melania? This is a significant question in American politics.”
Trump’s third wife has been reportedly splitting her time between the White House, their Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and New York City, where son Barron attends NYU.
Due to this and other concerns, Wolff has strongly pushed the narrative that Melania is in a sham relationship with the former host of “The Apprentice” reality series during an interview on “The Daily Beast Podcast” in May.
"These are two people who live separate lives. Everything is separate. They are not together," Wolff stated during the “60 Minutes Australia” segment.Michael Wolff, author of Fire and Fury and who's known to have one of the best sources inside the Trump circle, quotes a Trump insider:
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) April 17, 2025
"Melania hates his [Trump's] f***ing guts." pic.twitter.com/IdBk8I7BeM
The 71-year-old journalist added, “They don't live together, They are never together.” His comments got a response from the Trump administration.
White House communications director Steven Cheung fired back by calling Wolff an “imbecile of the highest order” with a “Trump Derangement Syndrome-addled brain.”
Wolff claimed the White House reached out to him on a “courtesy call” before issuing that scathing rebuttal that he referred to as an “old-fashioned non-denial denial.”
Speculation about Melania’s true feelings for her husband has been a topic of conversation in political circles for years. The Slovenian-American has repeatedly been filmed seemingly showing annoyance toward Donald.
One moment at Ben Gurion Airport with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara Netanyahu, remains one of the most-talked-about apparent examples of Melania's public frostiness.
In May 2017, during the first Trump administration, the president tried to hold Melania’s hand after landing on the airport tarmac in Israel. She then batted the most powerful person on the planet away in front of global cameras.
“The red carpet simply could not accommodate four of us abreast,” Melania wrote about the infamous encounter in her self-titled 2024 memoir, per Metro, in an attempt to downplay the awkwardness. “It was a minor, innocent gesture, nothing more.”
Since Trump’s rise as a Republican politician in 2015, there have been numerous incidents that have had voters and pundits questioning whether Donald and Melania were just staying married for show, and not love.
Melania’s decision to remain mostly out of the spotlight for her second stint as first lady sparked more rumors of a secret split until her rare appearance with the president at the White House Mother’s Day reception in May.
However, many onlookers are still skeptical that there is actual marital bliss in the first family. One YouTube user commented, “It is a marriage of convenience… they richly and thoroughly deserve each other.”
One Trump critic joked, “I bet she has a contract with fees for every official appearance and Mr. Orange has to pay.” Another person suggested, “You can tell she is disgusted by him.”
“Trump administration deported her by mistake,” wrote one person amid the federal government’s undocumented immigration crackdown, which has sparked tense protests in the Los Angeles area. Trump has threatened to send active U.S. military forces into the streets of California.
For some citizens, the ongoing demonstrations and other issues are more important than Melania’s whereabouts. For instance, a YouTube commenter expressed, “Nobody in America is asking this question, lol. We busy asking how to not become a dictatorship.”
