Melania Trump absent from Abe Shinzo visit to DC after White House said she’d be there

| 1:20 pm EST February 10, 2017
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Where in the world is Melania Trump? Last night the White House announced that Melania would be in Washington DC today with her husband Donald Trump to greet Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo. But it turns out Melania was not there today, and that Shinzo’s wife was left to her own sightseeing devices while Donald and Abe met privately. It points to a deepening problem in which the “First Lady” of the United States can’t be counted to show up at the White House and represent her country when necessary. So what happened today?

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It’s already known that Melania Trump and her son Barron are living full time at Trump Tower in New York, while Donald Trump lives on his own at the White House in Washington DC, and only sees his family on vacation weekends. This arrangement means that there has been no one to run the East Wing of the White House, which handles the more procedural and ceremonial aspects of the presidency. Some had expected Ivanka Trump to step into the role, but that hasn’t happened either. And today the lack of a First Lady became an embarrassing problem, both for Donald Trump and for the United States.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer tweeted late last night that “Tomorrow POTUS and FLOTUS will welcome Japan’s Prime Minister Abe and his wife to Washington before all flying to Mar-a-Lago.” FLOTUS is a clear reference to Melania Trump. And yet the Telegraph is reporting that that Melania was “absent from Shinzo Abe’s wife’s tour of Washington.” This raises the specter of who dropped the ball and why.

Did Melania Trump tell Donald and the White House that she would come to Washington DC for Prime Minister Abe’s visit, and then fail to show? Did the White House merely assume Melania would have the sense to be in town for this kind of major ceremonial event? Now we wait to see at what point Melania might join Donald and Abe as they prepare to travel to Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Update: Melania has since been spotted live on CNN, boarding with Trump, headed to Florida.

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