Melania Trump came out of hiding and joined her husband for Easter brunch in Mar-a-Lago on Sunday, where she sat next to Donald Trump to mark the occasion.
Videos posted online showed her and the former president entering the ornate Mar-a-Lago ballroom, to standing ovations from the audience. The couple sat alone with red velvet ropes obscuring their large table from the rest of the holiday-goers.
Melania has been seen chatting with Donald Trump, leaning in to talk to him while he’s eating. Easter brunch at Mar-a-Lago is a couple’s tradition. Even during Trump’s presidency, they vacationed together at the “Southern White House.”
Social media users posted pictures of the couple on the dance floor together. Mar-a-Lago offers a lavish Easter brunch for its members with a huge buffet that includes oysters, shrimp, and champagne. There is also an Easter egg hunt in the club grounds for kids dressed up as the Easter Bunny and other children’s characters.
It was the first time Melania had been seen alongside Donald Trump since her notable absence from his speech on Tuesday at their Palm Beach home. In his statements, he criticized the indictment he faces for falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments he allegedly made to porn star Stormy Daniels and a former janitor.
Melania Trump joined Donald Trump for Easter brunch at Mar-a-Lago
Former President Donald Trump and Melania received a warm welcome when they entered the hall
Melania has not been seen in public since March 30 — the evening it was announced that Trump would be impeached by Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg.
The former first lady earlier broke her broadcast silence online with a simple tweet, “Happy Easter!” message.
On Easter weekend, she wore a white dress with what appears to be a flower pattern across the shoulders and down the middle. The former president wore a pink tie with his dark suit.
On their table were pink and orange tulips. Mar-a-Lago is decorated for the holiday with papier-mâché bunnies and pink roses.
Donald Trump seems to have worked the hall. Many users on social media posted selfies with the former president.
But Melania, 52,’s sigh was remarkable after she kept her distance during the most public parts of Donald Trump’s indictment.
She didn’t join him in New York last week When he turned himself in to authorities, he pleaded not guilty to 34 criminal charges.
Nor did she take part in his rally in Mar-a-Lago in the aftermath when the former president gave a speech that included a private shout-out to all his children – but made no mention of his wife.
Caught between the former president’s two eldest sons, her father Victor Knavs was present to speak, while the former first lady was mysteriously absent. He was in high esteem in the first class that puts him directly in the eyes of the cameras.
Instead, it’s been taken over by social media users, who post their tags when they see the Trumps at Mar-a-Lago, which doubles as a private club in addition to the couple’s Florida residence.
At night The indictment was announced, and Melania was at Donald Trump’s side in a public display of force that social media users were obsessed with.
The couple dined with friends at their usual, highly visible Mar-a-Lago table.
The former first lady was wearing a bright red dress, which made it easy to see her next to it.
Melania and Donald Trump ate Easter brunch alone at their table
It’s still not clear why she skipped his speech, but sources previously told DailyMail.com that she was hurt and angry about allegations that Trump had an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.
The former first lady faces up to a year and a half of having her soiled clothes publicly washed as the criminal case continues in New York.
Those who know her well now say she is choosing to stay out of the spotlight to protect herself from news of her husband’s infidelity.
Before the indictment was announced last week, a source told PEOPLE that Melania “lives her own life” and “still feels happy” at Mar-a-Lago, but “she remains angry and doesn’t want to hear” about the alleged $130,000. . In silent money to daniels.
Lauren Wright, a professor of political science at Princeton University, told DailyMail.com that she was “not surprised that Melania was nowhere to be found in her husband’s letter after the impeachment was made.
“Throughout the Trump presidency, when the Stormy Daniels affair came to light, Melania had been asserting her independence in one way or another, either avoiding the topic or, more famously, contradicting those who claimed to know her feelings about alleged extramarital foreplay,” she noted. .
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former aide and friend, said she believed Melania’s recent silence and disappearance from the scene was intentional.
“It’s her weapon of choice and her shield,” she says.
In contrast, Donald Trump was out. He was greeted with huge cheers in Miami on Saturday night as he took his front row seat to UFC 287 alongside organization president Dana White.
Join other celebrities including Kid Rock and Mike Tyson to watch not only the main event between Israel Adesanya and Alex Pereira, but also the fight between MAGA supporter Jorge Masvidal and Gilbert Burns. Melania Trump was not present at the event.
Mar-a-Lago Resort hosted an Easter brunch with activities for the kids
Some Mar-a-Lago holiday decor
Melania, 52, notably did not follow her husband to New York City last week when he turned himself in to authorities and pleaded not guilty to 34 criminal charges. The couple is pictured here in 2017
Melania had previously disappeared into the fray in January 2018, days after the Wall Street Journal revealed Trump’s alleged affair with Stormy Daniels.
The report said Daniels was paid before the 2016 election to keep quiet about a relationship she said she had with Donald Trump a decade earlier – when the Trumps were newlyweds and shortly after Melania gave birth to their son.
Then President Trump immediately denied everything.
At the time, Melania Trump, then the first lady, canceled her plans to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos with Trump. It was set to go.
Instead, she visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., with her mother, then traveled to Mar-a-Lago, to indulge in the on-site spa.
