(The Hill) — Melania Trump won’t be joining President-elect Donald Trump at the White House meeting on Wednesday that’s aimed at marking a peaceful transition of power.
The former first lady, her press office said in a statement posted on social media, “will not be attending” the scheduled face-to-face between her husband and President Joe Biden.
“Her husband’s return to the Oval Office to commence the transition process is encouraging, and she wishes him great success,” Melania Trump’s office said. The statement also slammed “several unnamed sources in the media” for providing “false, misleading, and inaccurate information.”
“Be discerning with your source of news,” the X post said, without indicating what it described as inaccurate reporting. News that Melania Trump might skip the White House visit was first reported by several outlets ahead of Wednesday.
The former model and mom of one was largely absent from the campaign trail during her husband’s 2024 White House bid, rarely appearing at events.
The meeting between the former president and Biden will mark Trump’s first time return to the White House since he left on the morning of his successor’s inauguration in January 2021 after never conceding defeat in the 2020 election.
While Trump bucked tradition and never invited the Bidens to the White House following the 2020 race, Melania Trump wrote in her recent memoir of accepting an invitation from the Obamas to visit 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for the first time following her husband’s 2016 win.
“The four of us proceeded to the Oval Office, and Michelle [Obama] graciously offered me a tour of the residence,” Trump wrote in her book, “Melania.”
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“We began with tea in the Yellow Oval Room, exchanging thoughts about life in the White House. She was quick to answer my questions, and generous with her advice,” Trump, 54, said of the then-first lady.
“Having been through a similar experience when Barack assumed the presidency when her daughters were young, she understood better than almost anyone else what lay ahead for Barron and me.”
“Despite media expectations of awkwardness or tension,” Trump wrote, “our meeting was cordial and pleasant.”
