Melania Trump, the former first lady famously quoted as saying, "Who gives a f**k about Christmas stuff and decorations?" was noticeably absent from her family's holiday photo this year, which otherwise features the full Trump family posed in front of a trifecta of lit trees at the former president's Mar-a-Lago compound.
Shortly after the photo began to circulate, rumors flew as to why Melania skipped the occasion, adding to a running theme of her passing on attending the majority of her husband's events surrounding his campaign for a second term of presidency.
According to a number of sources such as Fox News and Page Six, there's an easy explanation for why she's not featured in the photo, with a Trump spokesperson weighing in to say that a family matter kept her away. Her mother, Amalija Knavs, is “very sick," according to a source who spoke with Fox, adding that “Melania has always been very devoted to her entire family . . . It should be no surprise that she spent this Christmas with her ailing mother.” But as The Mercury News points out, her father managed to make it to Mar-a-Lago for the snap. In the outlet's coverage of the family photo, they quote Laurence Leamer, the author of a book on Mar-a-Lago, as having told The Telegraph in a recent interview, "Nobody knows where she is. It’s like a mystery. It’s certainly talked about . . . She rarely exits Mar-a-Lago. It’s a strange, isolated life they have in that place."
Trump family Christmas portrait featuring Ivanka standing in as the former first lady.
— BlueDream (@58bugeye) December 27, 2023
Where is Melania? pic.twitter.com/T2OnZyPWWq
