Former First Lady Melania Trump is scheduled to attend the final day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee but is not scheduled to speak.
Regardless of whether she attends, her decision not to speak would be unusual given her previous speeches at the Republican National Convention in 2016 and 2020. It would also end a tradition of first ladies or candidates’ spouses speaking since Barbara Bush in 1992.
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Melania Trump has rarely made public appearances during her husband’s 2024 presidential campaign, but she issued a lengthy statement following Saturday’s assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“The monsters who perceived my husband to be an inhuman political machine tried to snuff out Donald’s passions — his laughter, his ingenuity, his love of music and his inspiration,” she wrote.
The former first lady didn’t stay away from the campaign trail entirely, hosting two fundraisers in New York and Florida for Log Cabin Republicans, an organization that represents LGBT conservatives and their allies.
The former first lady’s absence from her husband’s hush money trial and June’s debate with Joe Biden has fueled speculation about her future involvement if her husband is re-elected.
Jeremy Yurow is a Hawaii-based political reporter for the USA Today Network. He can be reached at JYurow@gannett.com or X (formerly Twitter @JeremyYurow).
