Donald Trump Asked About Melania Not Appearing at His Rallies

Donald Trump was asked during his recent town hall with Laura Ingraham whether his wife, Melania Trump, would be joining him at his rallies as he vies for a second term in the White House.

Melania Trump has also been largely absent from her husband's 2024 presidential campaign, declining to make public appearances or comments about the election. Her presence has been scaled back in contrast to the 2016 presidential campaign, when she took a more active role.

Her absence has been subject to much speculation as critics question why she has appeared to remove herself from public life. This speculation was exacerbated when the former model was notably absent from a Trump family Christmas card, which featured her husband, all of his children, and her father.

Donald Trump revealed his wife's reasons for being absent from his New Year's Eve party, when he explained in a speech at his Mar-a-Lago property that her mother, Amalija Knavs, had been "very ill." He added that his wife was with her mother in a hospital in Miami at the time, describing the situation as "a very tough one." Knavs died in January at the age of 78.

During his town hall this week in South Carolina, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump was asked if his wife would be active on the campaign trail, much like current first lady Jill Biden has been for her husband, President Joe Biden.

"It's a question I'm asked a lot, that Jill Biden is everywhere," Ingraham said. "She's campaigning everywhere for Joe Biden and she did in 2020.

"Will we see more of your secret weapon, for those of us who know your wife Melania? Will we see more of her this time around, given her ability to speak so many languages... [she's] so wonderful with children and everyone? I think a lot of people here want to see more of her."

"They love her, I'll tell you," Trump responded amid applause from the audience. "And you know her. She's a very brilliant person. She speaks many languages, the whole thing."

The onetime real estate mogul went on to explain that much of his wife's attention is devoted to their 17-year-old son, Barron Trump.

"Her life revolves around that boy, [he's] so important to her," the former star of The Apprentice said. "At the same time, it also revolves around our country and the success of our country. She's raised a lot of money for charity."

"She's a private person," he continued. "It's funny, she was a very successful model, very, very successful, and yet she was a private person. She's going to be out a lot, not because she likes doing it, but she likes the result. She wants to see this country really succeed.

"[The people] love the fact that she's not out there so much. You know, a lot of first ladies will go out. They want to be everywhere. They get angry at their husband because he's not introducing them. If I didn't introduce Melania she'd be very happy about it. She's just a different kind of a person. And she loves the country.

"She's gonna be out quite a bit and she loves his country and she wants a great and she says hello."

Newsweek has contacted the office of Donald Trump via email form for comment.

Donald Trump's comments come weeks after he provided an update on his wife's possible involvement in his 2024 presidential campaign.

"She's gonna play, and she always did play a big role," he said during an interview with Fox News' Brian Kilmeade last month. "She was somebody that you could rely on. She's very smart, a very compassionate person...she wants to make America great again, too."

"And I would rely on her for advice," he said. "I think she's going to be very active in the sense of being active, at the same time, I don't want my family to be too active because they did such a great job last time."

Donald Trump is the GOP frontrunner currently polling at 77.7 percent nationally, according to an average put forth by website FiveThirtyEight. According to a Morning Consult poll of 6,321 registered voters conducted from February 17 to 19, the Republican is at 45 percent and Democratic President Biden stands at 41 percent.