Since inauguration day, Melania has spent most of her time holed up in her lavish apartment. Never a fixture on the NYC social scene, she is staying hidden more, claims Bloch. (By contrast, Michelle Obama hosted an open house for select members of the public, plus a party for White House staffers during her first week on the job in 2009.)
According to a family source, not even Barron can get her out the gold-plated front door. Pre-inauguration, Melania would shuttle her son in a chauffeured SUV to and from his private school. But that was before picketers took up residence outside her building. Now, claims the source, Melania has the Secret Service take Barron to school and retrieve him.
Melania has left her $100 million apartment a handful of times. But aside from one outing to run errands January 30, she has usually headed to her other (luxurious) home. The first lady joined Donald, 70, at Mar-a-Lago, their $300 million estate in Palm Beach, Florida, the weekend of February 3. She went the following weekend too with a quick pit stop in Washington, D.C., to catch a ride on Air Force One with Donald and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife, Akie. Melania says shes most happy at Mar-a-Lago, says a source close to the first lady. She loves Palm Beach!
In familiar surroundings, she happily played hostess February 11. It was a conspicuous contrast to the previous day, when the most important woman in Japan was left to tour various spots in the nations capital minus the traditional first lady escort. (Both Laura Bush and Obama accompanied Akie on previous visits.) While their husbands talked policy over a round of golf February 11, Melania and Akie visited a Bethesda-by-the-Sea church where the Trumps wed in 2005 and strolled around the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach. Dont let her smile in those photos fool you, claims the source. She hates this.
A Melania source counters that she is very happy with her life and supporting her husband and family.
