# Melania Trump is gone (largely missing in public, not deceased) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [May 10, 2025, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217 "2025-05-10T13:52:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Loggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Loggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loggins)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/1 "2025-05-10T13:52:33Z")
I dont care about her, but there were big stories about the later FLOTUSes. What the hell is she doing, she dont care, do you? Fashion wise, she should drop the stupid hat. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/2 "2025-05-10T13:56:19Z")
> [@Loggins](#): > > Fashion wise, she should drop the stupid hat. She should drop Donald, he doesn’t look good on her. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/3 "2025-05-10T13:58:15Z")
So (title), nobody gets any Death Pool points today? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/4 "2025-05-10T13:59:29Z")
A recent NY Times article says she has been at the White House 14 out of the first 100 days. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/5 "2025-05-10T13:59:48Z")
I thought she might’ve left the country! ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/6 "2025-05-10T14:00:18Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > A recent NY Times article says she has been at the White House 14 out of the first 100 days. Two weeks! ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/7 "2025-05-10T14:02:39Z")
I don’t think she wanted to be first lady in the first place, and certainly doesn’t want to be now. I also don’t remember her doing much campaigning. She travels with him on official trips, but keeps to herself and doesn’t talk to the press much. She doesn’t have anything to say really. Why she bothers going, I don’t know. Perhaps she goes clothes shopping when she is in Rome or Paris, and the trip doesn’t cost her anything. ---
**Author:** ![Loggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Loggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loggins)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/10 "2025-05-10T14:07:30Z")
Imagine if that happened to other FLOTUSes ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/11 "2025-05-10T14:09:58Z")
That New York Times article said the last First Lady to be absent mostly from the White House was Bess Truman, though she was a very different woman. ---
**Author:** ![Loggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Loggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loggins)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/12 "2025-05-10T14:10:06Z")
I read somewhere (no cite) that Trumps former wives would have been deported if now.. Perhaps Melania is evading ICE? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/13 "2025-05-10T14:14:57Z")
I mean, good? The whole concept of First Lady is a bunch of 19th-century aristocratic bullshit, anyway. It’s her husband’s job, not hers. ---
**Author:** ![Loggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Loggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loggins)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/14 "2025-05-10T14:16:33Z")
Agree, FLOTUS is an american invention. We dont have it here, or care. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/15 "2025-05-10T14:29:57Z")
Thanks to whoever edited the title; that was some misleading clickbait-y bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/16 "2025-05-10T14:38:53Z")
Your welcome, I should have added a note I appended the title. So here is my note. * * * * * * ### @Loggins, please make future thread titles more descriptive and less misleading. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/17 "2025-05-10T14:44:53Z")
She’s busy banking her millions in her own name so she can shed the orange blob and find a young stud. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/18 "2025-05-10T15:01:02Z")
Y’know, I’d respect that. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/19 "2025-05-10T15:14:38Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > The whole concept of First Lady is a bunch of 19th-century aristocratic bullshit, anyway. What concept is that? To me, “First Lady” just means “the wife of the President” (and I’m not prepared to dismiss the concept of marriage itself as “19th-century aristocratic bullshit”). Anything beyond that—the specific role, if any, of the First Lady—is up to that particular President and First Lady to decide for themselves. ---
**Author:** ![betonbill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b782af/32.png) [@betonbill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betonbill)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/20 "2025-05-10T15:36:16Z")
I’ve always thought that she was living in NYC to be close to Barron. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/21 "2025-05-10T15:47:08Z")
The article in the Times said that she spends most of her time at either Mar-A-Lago or Trump Tower. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2025, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217/22 "2025-05-10T15:56:13Z")
The original concept was based on the old outdated rules of social precedence, which governed things like who got introduced first at formal occasions. The First Lady was the woman with the highest possible social precedence, since of course it was impossible for a woman to have any higher precedence than being married to the President (and even more impossible, of course, for her to have precedence by any means other than whom she was married to). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/melania-trump-is-gone-largely-missing-in-public-not-deceased/1018217.md?page=2)