Washington: Melania Trump, the former and future first lady, rejected an invitation from the current first lady, Jill Biden, to have tea at the White House and tour the executive mansion — a decision that breaks with a decades-old tradition.
In an unusual statement posted on social media platform X, Trump’s office said she would not be accompanying President-elect Donald Trump to the White House for his meeting on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) with President Joe Biden, a long-time ritual between the current and future presidents that the wives normally attend as well.
Doing things her way: Former and incoming first lady Melania Trump.Credit: AP
“In this instance, several unnamed sources in the media continue to provide false, misleading and inaccurate information,” Trump’s office said in a statement, an apparent explanation for her absence. It was unclear who in the media her office was referring to and what information it objected to.
Her office did, however, sound a note of congratulations to Donald Trump on behalf of his wife. “Her husband’s return to the Oval Office to commence the transition process is encouraging, and she wishes him great success.”
It is unclear if Melania Trump will move back into the White House with her husband when he takes office in January. During the first term, it took Trump months to move to Washington from Trump Tower in New York. Once she did, she had a fraught relationship with the media, as well as with a number of first lady traditions in the White House, including presiding over the annual Christmas decorations, which she complained about in profane terms.
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White House officials said the current first lady, Jill Biden, gave Donald Trump a handwritten letter of congratulations for Melania Trump, which also expressed her team’s readiness to assist with the transition.
Melania Trump’s snub of Biden was a first in modern memory and was particularly striking because the two husbands were meeting after exchanging ugly insults in a bitter campaign.
However, Anita McBride, an expert on first ladies at American University who served as chief of staff to Laura Bush during former president George W. Bush’s second term, gave Trump a pass.