Questions swirled regarding the unprecedented “absence” of first lady Melania Trump, with one ex-adviser to President Donald Trump claiming it has left him "more unhinged," The Daily Beast reported Monday.
“Where is the first lady?” asked aloud Joanna Coles of The Daily Beast, speaking on an episode of “The Daily Beast Podcast” published on Sunday.
“We know she's only turned up 38 days so far this year, which isn't very much! And for a first lady, it's nothing – Michelle Obama had two-and-a-half dozen staff and between 150 and 200 events a year. Laura Bush did at least 120 events a year, as did Jill Biden.”
“And Melania has five people on staff,” added Nell Scovell, a prominent television writer.
Anthony Scaramucci, who previously served as an adviser to the president during the first Trump administration, argued that Melania Trump’s extended absence was likely due to one thing: that her relationship with the president had grown “distant.”
“I think it's distant, and I think it's distant for a number of different reasons, but I think they probably have grown apart,” Scaramucci said.
“I think her attitude is she's not going to embarrass him – he's the president of the United States and she will serve as first lady, but I think it's pretty clear that they're not living together, and I think it was probably pretty clear to the journalists in Trump 1.0 that they weren't living together.”
As to how Melania Trump’s supposed absence had impacted the president, Scaramucci suggested it had left the president less stable.
“When she was more friendly with him, she would tell him to tone it down, and he would actually listen to her,” he said. “There’s very few people that Trump listens to.”
