First lady Melania Trump made her first public appearance Wednesday in nearly a month, ending one of the most breathless counting of days by the news media since the Iran hostage crisis.
This time the counting ended at 26 days.
Wearing a beige trench coat, Mrs. Trump accompanied President Trump to Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters for a briefing on the 2018 hurricane outlook.
Mrs. Trump had not been in front of TV cameras since May 10, shortly before she spent five days in the hospital for medical treatment that the White House described as a procedure for a benign kidney condition.
Mrs. Trump, a former fashion model, appeared healthy and unblemished as she sat at conference table with the president and several Cabinet secretaries for the FEMA briefing.
“She had a little rough patch but she’s doing great,” Mr. Trump said, turning to his wife. “The people love you. Thank you, honey.”
Mrs. Trump accompanied the president to survey FEMA’s hurricane recovery efforts last year in Texas, Louisiana and Puerto Rico.
The first lady’s absence stirred up a cauldron of speculation and conspiracy theories among the left-leaning news media, including allegations that she had plastic surgery, left her husband or was a battered wife.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump blasted reporters for their mistreatment of his wife.
“The Fake News Media has been so unfair, and vicious, to my wife and our great First Lady, Melania. During her recovery from surgery they reported everything from near death, to facelift, to left the W.H. (and me) for N.Y. or Virginia, to abuse. All Fake, she is doing really well!” he tweeted.
In another tweet, the president accused reporter of purposely not reporting sighting of Mrs. Trump at the White House.
“Four reporters spotted Melania in the White House last week walking merrily along to a meeting. They never reported the sighting because it would hurt the sick narrative that she was living in a different part of the world, was really ill, or whatever. Fake News is really bad!” he wrote.
Mrs. Trump attended a White House event Tuesday to honor Gold Star families. But it did not stop the counting of days because the event was not open to the news media.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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