WASHINGTON — First lady Melania Trump will return to the campaign trail Tuesday night after nearly a year-long absence, according to multiple reports.
In her first public appearance since contracting the coronavirus, the Slovenian-born first lady will join President Trump at a campaign rally in Erie, Pa., but is not expected to make any remarks.
Aside from her Rose Garden speech at the Republican National Convention in August, the last time Melania Trump appeared at a campaign event was at her husband’s re-election kickoff rally in Florida in June 2019.
According to NBC News, she had planned to headline a series of high-profile fundraisers in spring but they were canceled when COVID-19 took hold in the United States.
A notoriously private figure, Melania Trump rarely wades into the bitterly partisan political arena.
In an essay published on the White House website last week, she described her battle with COVID-19, from which she has now recovered, and admitted she had been “caught up” in the negative energy of the election.
“Recovering from an illness gives you a lot of time to reflect. When my husband was taken to Walter Reed as a precaution, I spent much of my time reflecting on my family,” she wrote.
“I also thought about the hundreds of thousands of people across our country who have been impacted by this illness that infects people with no discrimination,” she continued.
“We are in unprecedented times — and with the election fast approaching, it has been easy to get caught up in so much negative energy.”
On Thursday, Melania Trump also moved to quash tales being told publicly by her former “best friend” Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who has written a tell-all about her time working as a senior adviser in the first lady’s office.
The first lady described Winston Wolkoff as a “dishonest opportunist” after she began leaking damaging audio recordings of their private conversations.