Rolling Stone senior writer Jamil Smith suggested over the weekend that Melania Trump was being hidden deliberately from the public to conceal possible domestic violence.
“I wish that I didn’t suspect that the prolonged, poorly explained public absence of Melania Trump could be about concealing abuse,” said Smith in a tweet Sunday. “I wish that it was a ludicrous prospect. I wish that the @POTUS wasn’t a man with a history of abusing women, including those to whom he is married.”
I wish that I didn’t suspect that the prolonged, poorly explained public absence of Melania Trump could be about concealing abuse. I wish that it was a ludicrous prospect. I wish that the @POTUS wasn’t a man with a history of abusing women, including those to whom he is married.
— Jamil Smith جميل كريم (@JamilSmith) June 3, 2018
Smith presented the idea with no supporting evidence, a matter which was pointed out to him in several prominent comments to his tweet.
President Trump’s behavior with his former wives and lovers is no secret. In addition to his own admissions on things like the “Access Hollywood” tape, the president was accused of “rape” by his former wife Ivana Trump in 1989, a claim she later recanted.
A rep for the White House did not immediately respond to request for comment on the tweet or provide an update to the first lady’s recent whereabouts. Melania Trump was last seen publicly on May 10.
While Smith’s suggestion may be overblown, questions have grown with each passing day that the first lady has remained out of the public eye. Over the weekend, the first lady’s office revealed that she would not accompany the president to either a G7 meeting in Quebec this week or the historic June 12 summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, fueling further speculation.
Journalists and online commentators have expressed various levels of mockery/concern over the question of what she has been up to since she was last seen. The first lady also underwent kidney surgery last month.