TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP FAMILY/MELANIA: “Over the past week, Melania Trump, a notoriously private first lady, made three very public decisions: She canceled a trip abroad with the president, made an impromptu visit to the Holocaust Memorial Museum and flew to Mar-a-Lago, where she spent part of her short trip relaxing at the spa…
Aides to Mrs. Trump say that she is focusing on her role and her family. But her relative silence and independent travel in recent weeks is set against a salacious backdrop: A Wall Street Journal report that the porn star Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 just before the 2016 election to keep quiet about an affair she had had a decade earlier with Mr. Trump — when the Trumps were newlyweds, and while Mrs. Trump was pregnant with their son, Barron.
Mrs. Trump and the president have had a tumultuous relationship at times over the years, but few episodes have roiled the peace as much as the news surrounding Ms. Daniels. The reports of a payoff blindsided the first lady, who was furious with her husband, according to two people close to the couple. She has kept a low profile since.
On Tuesday, Mrs. Trump is expected to resurface. The White House said that she would attend Mr. Trump’s State of the Union address, typically the most high-profile appearance of the year for first ladies. The East Wing, which has vacillated between being forceful or unresponsive in recent weeks, gave a tentative confirmation on Monday: ‘That is the plan,’ her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said in an email. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said that Mrs. Trump would attend, but that Barron would not.”
-Katie Rogers and Maggie Haberman, “Melania Trump, Out of Sight Since Report of Husband’s Infidelity, to Attend State of the Union,” The New York Times online, Jan. 29, 2018