Melania Trump is so rarely sighted at Mar-a-Lago that members of the Palm Beach private club are openly speculating about her whereabouts, according to a local author.
“Nobody knows where she is,” Laurence Leamer, author of Mar-A-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump's Presidential Palace, told the Telegraph.
“It’s like a mystery. It’s certainly talked about.”
Ms Trump has scarcely been seen in public over the past year as her husband has campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination, been charged in four separate criminal cases, and appeared frequently in court for a civil fraud trial in New York.
In November, she made a rare public appearance when she joined the other living former first ladies at Rosalynn Carter’s memorial in Atlanta.
A few weeks later Ms Trump delivered a speech at a naturalisation ceremony at the National Archives in Washington DC, a move that garnered attention as her husband has been charged with the illegal retention of Archives documents.
Melania Trump speaks at a naturalisation ceremony at the National Archives in mid-December— (AFP via Getty Images)
Speculation about Ms Trump’s whereabouts intensified over Christmas when Mr Trump was spotted dining at Mar-a-Lago seemingly without any members of his family present in footage posted to social media.
Mr Leamer lives in Palm Beach and was a Mar-a-Lago member before being permanently banned after the publication of his 2021 exposé about the club.
He told the Telegraph that Ms Trump hardly ever leaves Mar-a-Lago, and leads a “strange, isolated life”.
Mr Leamer says she is fiercely protective of her 17-year-old son Barron’s privacy and is concerned about the level of attention he would attract should Mr Trump win back the presidency.
A Trumpworld source told Page Six this week that Ms Trump had been feeling more confident in public after her recent outings and would take on a more visible role for her husband’s campaign in the new year.
“Trump and his family are so secure that he will become president again that insiders at Mar-a-Lago say he’s reached an agreement with Melania to step up top-tier diplomatic appearances in 2024,” the source told Page Six.
In September, reports emerged that Ms Trump had quietly renegotiated her pre-nuptial agreement.
The new agreement was focused on maintaining and increasing Barron’s “substantial trust”, and was prompted by Mr Trump’s 2024 presidential run and swirling criminal exposure, a source told Page Six.
Mar-a-Lago has been the Trumps’ primary home since leaving the White House, as Joe Biden took office in the wake of the attack on the US Capitol and Mr Trump’s second impeachment.
Mr Trump, 77, and Ms Trump, 53, have been married since 2005.
