Melania Trump rode to the State of The Union address in a separate limousine from her husband on Tuesday, and many commentators see that as a serious sleight to the president.
Melania arrived with her invited guests rather than President Donald Trump, breaking a years-long tradition of presidents appearing with their first ladies at the address.
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The cold shoulder comes after the flood of news stories about the president’s alleged relationship with adult actress Stormy Daniels. Daniels told reporters in 2011 that she had had a years-long affair with Trump starting in 2006, just four months after Melania Trump gave birth to Barron, the family’s youngest son.
Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was alleged to have paid the adult actress $130,000 in hush money to keep the affair quiet, and she has yet to go public with it. When the story went public anyway, Melania was reportedly furious with her husband. Sources close to the First Lady even said she intended to “keep a low profile” and avoid the state of the union address altogether.
Instead, she arrived by herself, distancing herself from her embattled husband. She did the same last week when she decided not to accompany him to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum.
Pundits at Epolitico speculate that the separations may be intended to humiliate the president somehow in retribution for the public relation circus caused by his alleged affair with Daniels. Altogether, the president has been faced with 19 charges of sexual harassment or misconduct according to The Atlantic.
