Melania Trump keeps shooting down her husband's requests to campaign with him
- Melania Trump keeps rejecting Donald Trump's requests to appear with him on the 2024 campaign trail, according to the New York Times.
- She also hasn't been at any of his court appearances.
Former — and possibly future — first lady Melania Trump has repeatedly rejected her husband's offers to campaign with him ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
That's according to The New York Times, which published a lengthy profile Wednesday of Melania Trump's private life in the years since former President Donald Trump left the White House.
Melania Trump hasn't just been absent from the campaign trail; she also hasn't been at any of Trump's court hearings.
(The former president is facing two criminal indictments, one from the Justice Department over his handling of classified documents and another from the Manhattan district attorney's office accusing him of falsifying business records. He's also staring down two upcoming civil trials: a $250 million fraud lawsuit against the Trump Organization from the New York attorney general's office, and a defamation lawsuit from former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll. And he's facing a possible third indictment over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.)
People close to the Trump family told The Times that Melania Trump's lack of public support for Trump does not mean she doesn't privately support him and that she still defends him behind the scenes. The report also noted that Melania Trump believes that Trump can win the presidential race next year despite myriad legal issues that he faces.
The former first lady made headlines throughout Trump's presidency after appearing to publicly snub her husband.
In one viral moment in 2017, Melania was seen swatting Trump away as he tried to hold her hand while they were visiting Israel on a diplomatic trip.
In January 2021, Melania left Trump hanging during a photo op after the two touched down in Palm Beach, Florida, hours after leaving Washington, DC. She was seen walking away from the tarmac while the former president was met by photographers and members of the press.
Melania Trump appeared with Trump on the campaign trail when he officially announced his 2024 presidential bid in November. But other than one interview with Fox News in May, she hasn't said a single word about the campaign since then, The Times reported.
When Trump first announced his presidential campaign in 2016, many wondered how Melania Trump — who had previously been ensconced in the fashion world — would make her mark on the campaign trail.
She was ultimately well-received by conservative women and emerged as a key surrogate in the final weeks of the campaign, speaking up for then-candidate Trump after an "Access Hollywood" video surfaced of him making lewd comments about women in 2005.
While Trump was in office, Melania Trump generally sought to focus on issues affecting children, which she said would also be a priority should her husband win the presidency again.