Melania Trump Has Been a No-Show at the RNC Through Its First Three Days
Melania will not be speaking, but she will attend the final day of the RNC.
Published July 18 2024, 9:16 a.m. ET
The 2024 Republican National Convention has almost come to a close. The first three days of the RNC have concluded, and the fourth night will take place on July 18 and culminate with a speech from the nominee, Donald Trump.
Usually, presidential spouses are among those who get the chance to address the assembled crowd for the event, but thus far, Melania Trump has been entirely absent from the event. Now, many want to know whether she's going to show up at some point or not.
Was Melania Trump at the RNC?
Melania has not yet shown up at the RNC, but reports suggest that she will make an appearance with her husband on the last night of the convention. Melania spoke during the 2016 and 2020 conventions, and at the 2016 convention, famously came under fire for plagiarizing some sections of Michelle Obama's 2008 convention speech.
This year, though, she is not planning to speak, and will apparently only be there to offer her husband support.
While spouses are often an important part of political campaigning, Melania has been almost entirely absent from the 2024 campaign to date, and has made few public appearances or statements.
One notable exception came on July 14, when she released a statement in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on her husband. In that statement, she thanked the Secret Service officers for protecting her husband.
She also said that we should "ascend above the hate, the vitriol, and the simple-minded ideas that ignite violence."
“When I watched that violent bullet strike my husband, Donald, I realized my life, and Barron's life, were on the brink of devastating change,” she added.
The statement was a departure from the silence that has characterized her role in Trump's 2024 campaign to date.
J.D. Vance's wife did speak at the convention.
While Melania has been largely absent from the convention, vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance's wife Usha spoke on July 17 before her husband took the stage.
“When J.D. met me, he approached our differences with curiosity and enthusiasm,” she said. “He wanted to know everything about me, where I came from, what my life had been like.”
In spite of her husband's quick ascent into national politics after his election to the Senate in 2022, Usha has remained out of the spotlight as much as possible. The two met when they were both attending Yale Law School, but whereas J.D. is from small town Ohio, Usha is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was a registered Democrat in 2014 before changing her affiliation.
“Although he’s a meat and potatoes kind of guy, he adapted to my vegetarian diet and learned to cook food for my mother, Indian food,” she explained.
She also added that J.D. had not changed since the two of them first met "except for that beard." It's unclear what role both Melania and Usha will play in the campaign moving forward, but it's striking to see how different their approaches were to this key campaign moment.
