A pair of male Washington Post reporters revealed in a 1,000-word investigative report that Melania Trump is no longer standing by her man. But more than that, she's missing in action from the Palm Beach life she once embraced.
Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt revealed recently from one of his many conversations with Donald Trump that the ex-president asked his third wife to prance around the Mar-a-Lago pool in a bikini "so all the other guys could get a look at what they were missing." But it appears the misplaced Melania isn't doing much by the pool or around town, at rallies, or in one of the many courtrooms in which her husband has been arraigned.
She's "not at any of the high-end shops on Worth Avenue, located just two miles up the road in Palm Beach," the report said.
“She used to come in but no one has seen her in years,” said a salesperson at Salvatore Ferragamo. The guys asked more than a dozen other high-end stores.
“It’s a quiet, safe oasis here,” the Ferragamo staffer explained. “It’s why you see celebrities around. But for some reason, not her.”
She's also not eating out at the posh establishments around town either.
“Jimmy Buffett used to sit right there, loved speaking French to the staff,” a bartender at Cafe L’Europe told the Post. “I’ve never seen Melania, though. It’s incredible. It’s like they might as well live in another country, not just down the road.”
While Ivanka was living it up with the Kardashians, the 53-year-old former first lady "isn't even on the Palm Beach party circuit," the reporters wrote.
“There’s a small-town feel here for very wealthy people, a place where you see everyone at social events,” said GOP consultant Ryan Williams, who is considered a Palm Beach socialite. “But I’ve never seen her outside the walls of Mar-a-Lago.”
That said, she does have a 17-year-old son who is in his final years of high school. Meanwhile, SILive.com speculates the youngest Trump could play college basketball at St. John's or Miami. It's unclear if a prep school has a PTA, but Post authors didn't check such locations for the mother of one. Nor did they check out sporting events at the prep school or watch for blacked-out vehicles at the local SAT prep classes.
When the reporters asked the Trump campaign for an interview with the former first lady, they were told: “There will always be those who seek relevance and financial gain by inserting themselves into stories. Mrs. Trump has always been and will always be focused on her family, as it is her number one priority. Any reports claiming to have insight into her life should be read with caution.”
One of the Republican challengers is mocking the former president by highlighting that his wife has abandoned him. The report said fliers began appearing in the state reading "Missing Melania," and a small plane flew over a college football game with a banner reading: "Where's Melania?"
It turns out she has been spotted at the Trump Tower in New York because she doesn't like Bedminster, N.J. She was paid $500,000 by the Log Cabin Republicans and the GOP group Fix California to appear at several events, The New York Times reported. And she has attempted to sell a hat she wore while first lady and an Apollo 11 NFT, which the Post says "may have violated NASA policies." She also started a scholarship program for foster children who are aging out of the system and have nowhere else to go.
The Post speculated on what it all means. They asked if she was speaking with silence.
Her one-time friend Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who wrote a tell-all book ripe with personal recordings of phone calls, said Melania enjoyed being a mysterious enigma.