Melania Trump has largely kept herself out of the spotlight since her husband, Donald Trump, took office in January.
The First Lady has been in Washington, D.C., but also present in Florida and New York. However, as the Trumps begin their second term in Washington, a new book has shined a lot of negative light on Donald and Melania’s marriage, and the couple have still not commented on it.
Finally, as Donald Trump appeared in his Congress Address on Tuesday, Melania Trump was present. The president recognized his wife during the address (for which the First Lady got an ovation) but there were those who speculated that there were emotions beyond just happiness in her expression. Fans noticed her lip twitching, which could potentially point towards something not being quite right.
Melania Trump has clarified that her second term at the White House will be very different to her first. Not only will she approach the work differently, but there’ll also be a change as to her living arrangements. In a January interview with Fox, Melania stated plainly that she doesn’t intend to live at the White House full-time.
“I will be in the White House. And you know, when I need to be in New York, I will be in New York. When I need to be in Palm Beach, I will be in Palm Beach,” Melania stated. “But my first priority is, you know, to be a mom, to be a first lady, to be a wife. And once we’re in on January 20, you serve the country.”
Donald and Melania have always been the subject of headlines in the press, be that during their time in office or not. However, the real estate mogul’s second presidential term has started with a multitude of controversies relating to the war in Ukraine and the taxes charged on goods imported from other countries, known as tariffs.
Although Melania has little or nothing to do with these things, a new book has placed her in the front seat. Renowned Trump author Michael Wolff, who has written several critical books about the president, claims in his latest book, All or Nothing, that Melania has no feelings left for her husband. According to excerpts from the book, Wolff claims Melania has no interest in living day-to-day near him.
“She f***ing hates him”, a “Mar-a-Lago patio confidant,” told Wolff.
Melania Trump and Donald has a “nontraditional living arrangement,” claims author
Melania has previously stated that she will not live at the White House full-time during her second term as First Lady. Instead, she will split her time between Washington, New York – where she will spend time with her son, Barron – and Palm Beach, Florida, where the Trumps lived at their Mar-a-Lago estate after their first White House exit.
In All or Nothing, Wolff wrote more about Donald and Melania’s marriage. In one extract, Wolff described how Melania reportedly laughed at her husband’s presidential campaign’s effort “to get her to accompany her husband” on the trail. She wasn’t seen on the campaign trail once, except in the last months.
“Since the first indictment in New York, when Melania had simply laughed at the campaign’s effort to get her to accompany her husband (‘Nice try’), it had been clear that she wasn’t going to show up. During the past year, she had yet to make a single campaign appearance. In only one instance in 2023 did she even appear on the plane—and then only hitching a ride. Magically, the Melania issue had not, in the White House years nor the Mar-a-Lago years—with both staffers and press quite aware of the Trumps’ nontraditional living arrangements and their careful distance from each other— become an issue,” Wolff wrote.
“Melania continued to be an additional freak-out, absolutely refusing every entreaty to speak or even to appear side by side with her husband. He had never faced point-blank questions from the media about their relationship. But what if ‘Where’s Melania?’ started now in earnest?” he continued.
“But that was all before the shooting…now the attempt on Trump’s life not only made him again incontrovertibly the central figure of the moment, if not the age, giving him a maximum hero’s electoral mantle, but it also repositioned his convention as the joyous and abject coronation of which he dreamed.”
White House director says author is a “fraud” over Donald and Melania Trump claims
So, how much distance does Melania allegedly want to keep from her husband? According to Wolff, Trump’s campaign staff “didn’t even know where Melania lived.”
When appearing on the Daily Beast’s podcast, Wolff explained: “She doesn’t live with him. They spend very little time together. Whenever she was at the White House or at Mar-a-Lago, it’s like she’s a guest. She basically lives in Trump Tower now.”
Wolff concluded that at the Republican National Convention, Melania “would not sit next to him … Her one appearance on the last day was contingent on him not being in the VIP box”.
Of course, not everyone agrees with Wolff’s claims in All or Nothing. Donald Trump has previously threatened to sue authors, the media, and other publishers for using anonymous sources. Neither the president nor Melania has commented on Wolff’s claims. However, Steven Cheung, White House communications director, was clear on what he thought about the author.
“Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s*** and has been proven to be a fraud. He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain,” Cheung told Newsweek.
Melania was by her husband’s side as he was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on January 20. Not long after, she accompanied him on a trip to Los Angeles to meet victims of the tragic wildfires, but besides that, the First Lady has kept herself out of the spotlight… until now.
Melania Trump’s return to Washington
This week, Melania made a rare public appearance on Capitol Hill to push a bill combating revenge porn. The First Lady even made a political statement, criticizing Democratic politicians for being absent and not showing enough support publicly.
“It’s heartbreaking to witness some teens, especially girls, grappling with the overwhelming challenges posed by malicious online content;” Melania said, per the New York Post.
“I was heartened to learn that [GOP] Senator [Ted] Cruz [of Texas] and [Dem] Senator [Amy] Klobuchar [of Minnesota] united to prioritize this fundamental matter,” she said. “I must admit, however, I expected to see more Democrat[ic] leaders with us here today to address this serious issue. Surely as adults, we can prioritize American children ahead of partisan politics.”
On Tuesday, Donald Trump addressed Congress. Melania was in attendance, and as the First Wife, she had the privilege of inviting several people to attend with her. As per the White House, Melania invited “everyday Americans” to the Congress address.
Among those was Marc Fogel, a schoolteacher from Pennsylvania who was released from a Russian prison some weeks ago. He was part of a prisoner swap made by the Trump organization and attended the address with his mother.
The family of a volunteer fire chief, Corey Comperatore, who was killed at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally where Donald Trump was shot, was also one of Melania’s guests. The window of New York Police Department officer Jonathan Diller, who was killed in 2024 during a routine traffic stop in Queens, was another in attendance.
Melania Trump shows sign of ‘stress’ as fans notice her ‘lip-twitching’
Donald Trump introduced Melania as “the First Lady of the United States”, praising her for her work.
“I also want to recognize another person who has devoted herself to foster care community,” Trump said. “She worked so hard on it, her very loving person, our magnificent first lady of the United States. Melania’s work has yielded incredible results, helping prepare our nation’s future leaders as they enter the workforce.”
While Melania received an ovation from Congress, social media users noticed something else: cameras caught the First Lady’s lip twitching.
“Melania is doing that lip thing again,” one social media user observed, per the Mirror. It’s not the first time it has happened. In January, she was spotted doing the same thing with her lip while traveling with her husband.
One user asked, “Is she OK?” while others suggested that it looked like she was “hissing,” “growling,” or even “snarling.”
So, what could be the reason behind Melania’s lip-twitching? According to Psychology Today, it could be signs of nervousness or stress.
“When some people are nervous or stressed, their lips will twitch or move about erratically, like a nervous tic or a form of dyskinesia (involuntary muscle movement). Or the lips may visibly distort or contort uncontrollably under emotional turmoil. For those not familiar with this behavior, it can be distracting, but once you realize that this is often induced by stress, it can help you assist others undergoing an emotional situation so you can be more understanding and, hopefully, empathetic,” the website states.
Lips can show proof of “extreme stress,” Psychology site claims
“In some cases, when people are holding back from crying, their lips may quiver, blush red, pout, or vibrate just enough to communicate that they are about to cry or they are emotionally distraught. So, too, when on a first date, the lips may quiver slightly as close proximity and intense eye-to-eye contact can also increase the emotional barometer.”
Psychology Today continues: “The lips are highly sensitive to touch and temperature—all you have to do is look at a sensory homunculus to see how out of proportion our lips are compared to the rest of the body—but they are also reflective of, and highly reactive to, our emotional states. Rich with nerves and highly vascular, the lips react in real-time to vacillating emotions. So, when people receive bad news or witness a horrific event, the lips quickly stiffen—muscular tension increases and blood constriction takes place to the point the lips may actually look ashen. Under extreme stress, they are compressed tightly together or are pulled into the mouth, and they literally disappear.”