MY Columns

Does anybody know where Melania is?

We all know where President Trump is, every minute of every day. He's in the Oval Office. He's playing golf. He's in Turkey. He's playing golf. He's in California and Nevada. He's playing golf. He's in Michigan, Long Island, and Georgia. He's playing golf.

But, more and more, the big question is: Where is the first l ady? And the answer is: Only a handful of people outside of her Secret Service detail really know. The rest of us are kept in the dark.

Donald Trump often brags that everything about his administration is the "greatest" in American history. In this case, he's right. Melania Trump has the "greatest disappearance record" of any first lady ever.

On August 19, the Daily Beast reported that Melania has been seen in public only 38 out of 231 days so far in 2026. Most notably on April 9, when she held a surprise White House news conference to deny she was a friend of Jeffrey Epstein or knew anything about his crimes.

Since then, for the most part, First Lady Melania Trump has been "MIA." She did not go to China with the president on May 13 to 15. She did not attend the "dignified transfer" of remains at Dover Air Force Base on July 22. She did not show up with Trump for the rescheduled White House Correspondents' Association Dinner on July 24. She was not alongside Trump at Lindsey Graham's funeral on July 28.

In fact, the last time Melania was seen in public was July 19, when she accompanied her husband to the World Cup final. That's five weeks with no sighting of the first lady. Just imagine the reaction had Michelle Obama gone off the grid for five weeks. Republicans would have tried to impeach her!

Since July 19, the only word we've had of the first lady came on August 5, when Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters in Las Vegas: "Melania says hello." How do we know? How does he know?

So where's she hanging out? Definitely not at the White House. I asked the White House press office and got no response. Reporters I spoke to speculate she's holed up at Trump's golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. If so, she's hiding out there, too. The president spent the last two weekends at Bedminster. There were plenty of photos of him hanging out with executive assistant Natalie Harp. But not one picture of him and Melania.

True, a couple of days ago, the White House press office issued a terse statement: "First Lady Melania Trump facilitated the reunification of another child with her family on Monday, August 17, 2026, after being separated during the Ukraine-Russia Federation conflict." But that doesn't tell us where she is. That memo could have been sent from Mar-a-Lago, or Bedminster, or Trump Tower - or Mars.

OK, let's first establish this. The first lady is not an elected official. She has no power and no official responsibilities. Melania Trump's not required to do anything, or show up for anything. She's free to escape to the south of France for the next two years if she wants, and maybe already has.

But, but, but - by not stepping up to fulfill the traditional role of first lady, she's short-changing the American people. Elected or not, first ladies play an important role: representing the United States around the world, championing important causes, serving as informal adviser to the president, traveling around the country, and connecting the White House with ordinary Americans.

Starting with Martha Washington and Abigail Adams, first ladies have made an important contribution on issues they championed: Eleanor Roosevelt on civil rights; Lady Bird Johnson on environment; Betty Ford on breast cancer; Barbara Bush on literacy; Hillary Clinton on health care; Laura Bush on libraries; Michelle Obama on help to military families; Jill Biden on women's health.

Melania could make a big difference, too, if she chose to. After all, in her memoir, she says Trump places "a considerable amount of trust" in her. So, as an immigrant herself, she might persuade Trump not to treat all immigrants like criminals. As an advocate for rescuing Ukrainian children kidnapped to Russia, she might convince Trump to help Ukraine win the war - which he promised to end on Day One. As a person of good taste, she might even coax Trump to stop turning the White House into a gilded Las Vegas bordello.

Where are you, Melania, when we need you most?
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(Bill Press is host of The BillPressPod, and author of 10 books, including: "From the Left: My Life in the Crossfire." His email address is: bill@billpress.com. Readers may also follow him on Twitter @billpresspod and on BlueSky @BillPress.bsky.social.)

Has anybody seen POTUS? Look in the dumpster!

Exclusive! Conversation overheard two nights ago in the White House.

Susie Wiles: Has anybody seen the president?

Natalie Harp: Nope, I haven't seen him for an hour. Which, for me, is rare.

Marco Rubio: Have you tried the dumpster out back? He likes to hide out there sometimes. Or that porta potty by the ballroom?

Susie Wiles: No, I've looked everywhere. He must be playing hide-and-seek again.

OK, that never happened. But we now know that Trump played an even bigger game of hide-and-seek on July 8, when leaving the NATO summit in Turkey - a dangerous game that raises serious concerns about the safety of the president and many others. And, like everything else Trump does, it was done in a fog of lies.

Here's how it unfolded. Trump flew to Ankara on the new Air Force One, a gift from the government of Qatar. But, upon arriving at the airport for departure, the White House announced that Trump would be flying out of Turkey, instead, on the old, legacy Air Force One. Because, Trump said, he wanted to send the Qatari jet to Mildenhall Air Force base in England so troops would have a "chance to tour the aircraft." Lie Number One.

Trump then mounted the stairs to old Air Force One, gave the customary wave, and walked inside. Reporters and other officials on board were told to lower their window shades for take-off, ostensibly with the president still on board. Lie Number Two.

Reporters were surprised when Trump didn't visit the press cabin during the flight. No wonder. He wasn't on the plane! Because, once the shades were lowered so nobody could see what was happening, Trump had been secretly spirited out of Air Force One into the back of a catering truck and driven to a nearby Air Force cargo plane, or AFC-32A. Lie Number Three.

Then, once all three planes arrived at Mildenhall, Trump, who'd been stealthily returned to Air Force One, walked off the plane, waved to reporters, and walked across the tarmac to board Air Force Qatar for the flight home across the Atlantic as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Lie Number Four.

As if that's not bad enough, details of this extraordinary event were covered up by the White House for an entire month, until it was first revealed by the Washington Post on August 10. At which point, Trump blamed it all on the Secret Service. "It's really just up to Secret Service," he told reporters. "I just follow what they like to do. They wanted me to go on a different flight, a different plane, equal safety. ... I do what they say."

Not so fast. Everybody wants the Secret Service to take whatever steps are necessary to protect the president. They were right not to let Trump fly on a plane that, according to Israeli intelligence, was targeted by Iranian terrorists with shoulder-to-air missiles. But that still leaves several unanswered questions.

First, why did Trump take Executive Assistant Natalie Harp, Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and a couple of others with him, but leave the rest of his entourage behind?

Second, if Air Force One was not safe for Trump to fly on, why was it safe for Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, many senior White House officials, and the entire White House press corps - all of whom were on board the decoy plane. Or, as reporters have now dubbed it, the "Bait Plane." Were they given any warning? Were they offered a choice? Or were their lives just considered expendable?

Third, why were no reporters, even sworn to secrecy, allowed to accompany the president? For decades, it has been established precedent that the pool goes wherever the president goes. George W. Bush kept a small group of reporters with him on September 11. Instead, Trump forced reporters to lie for a month.

Fourth. They missed all advance signs of a Hamas invasion on October 7. They were wrong when they said the Iranian regime would immediately collapse if we bombed it on February 28. So why did we believe Israeli intelligence reports about threats to Air Force One? Did US intelligence agencies confirm the danger?

I don't normally believe in conspiracy theories, but it does make you wonder: Is that really Donald Trump up there in front of a crowd? Or is it somebody else, wearing a wig, making a fool of himself?
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Black and white portrait of an elderly man smiling in a suit and glasses.