Melania Trump broke a long-standing tradition by not attending the 2024 presidential debate on Thursday evening.
The former first lady was nowhere to be seen when Trump deboarded his plane in Atlanta, Georgia ahead of the first debate against President Joe Biden since 2020.
She was also nowhere to be seen after the debate ended. Trump exited solo but President Biden’s wife Dr Jill Biden made her way to the stage to greet her husband and escort him to the moderators’ table.
Melania has been largely absent from his 2024 presidential campaign. She has already missed key events, including the kickoff of the 2024 election in Iowa and her husband’s Super Tuesday victory party.
She also did not attend a single day of Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan. He is set to be sentenced on July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention, where he will be named the official GOP presidential nominee.
Melania was most recently seen at Barron Trump’s high school graduation in May. She also attended a campaign event in April with the Log Cabin Republicans, which describes itself as “the nation’s largest Republican organization dedicated to representing LGBT conservatives and allies.”
When reporters asked her in March if she’d be returning to the trail, she told them, “stay tuned.” Several experts also predict she will not move back into the White House if her husband wins in November.
“She’s distancing herself even more from her husband and from the Washington social political scene,” Kate Andersen Brower, an expert on the White House and first ladies, said.
Katherine Jellison, a history professor at Ohio University who studies first ladies, told the Associated Press that Melania and her husband have often broken with tradition.
“But everything the Trumps do seems to be against the standard playbook of how candidates and spouses behave,” Jellison said this week.
Thursday’s debate is also breaking with tradition. The event marks the first televised debate between a former and sitting president. CNN, the network hosting the debate, has also eliminated a live audience and will mute candidates’ microphones when it is not their turn to spreak.
Biden has spent much of the last week at Camp David with his close advisers preparing for the debate. Meanwhile, Trump has prioritized policy discussions with allies over formal debate preparation, The Independent previously reported.
