(AFP) – Melania Trump signaled she intends to mostly live in the White House when she returns to Washington as first lady next Monday, squelching speculation that she might split time between other residences. When Donald Trump took office for the first time in 2017, his wife did not immediately join him at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, instead staying in New York until their then 11-year-old son Barron completed the school year.
“I will be in the White House,” Melania Trump told the “Fox & Friends” program in an interview aired Monday. “And when I need to be in New York, I will be in New York. And when I need to be in Palm Beach, I will be in Palm Beach.” The Trumps are known to live at their lavish Manhattan apartment in Trump Tower as well as the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Melania Trump was notably absent from Donald Trump’s side during much of the 2024 campaign, as well as during his New York trial in which he was convicted on 34 felony counts. But she increased her public profile as the campaigning wrapped up and Trump emerged victorious.
As first lady once again, Melania Trump says she plans to ramp up her “Be Best” campaign for children’s wellbeing, a somewhat ill-defined cause that she promoted only sporadically during her husband’s first term. “I will continue with Be Best and also I will expand Be Best,” she told the Fox program.
She will also release a movie about herself, which follows on the heels of the October publication of her remarkably tight-lipped memoir “Melania.” She said the idea to make a film following her day-to-day life and return to the White House was her own. “My life is incredible, it’s incredibly busy, and I told my agent, you know I have this idea, so please go out and make a deal for me.”
In returning to the role, Melania Trump said her top priorities are: “to be a mom, to be a first lady, to be a wife.” Barron, now in college in New York, will “come and visit,” she added. But the White House will otherwise be occupied by just the couple.
“Maybe some people, they see me as just the wife of the president, but I’m standing on my own two feet, independent,” Melania Trump said, adding: “I don’t always agree with what my husband is saying or doing. I give him my advice, and sometimes he listens, sometimes he doesn’t, and that’s OK.”
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