White House Bombshell MELANIA WALKS OUT!

First lady Melania Trump isn’t seen in public for 24 days. The truth about her mysterious disappearance

Where in the world was Melania Trump? It had been more than three weeks since the first lady had set foot in public after undergoing a kidney operation, and public curiosity was in overdrive — especially after her husband, President Donald Trump, pointed to a White House window on May 25 and told reporters she’s “right there,” when they could plainly see that she wasn’t. But on May 30, Melania spoke out and tried to deflate headlines like “Melania Is Missing!” when she tweeted from her official @FLOTUS account to say the media “is working overtime speculating where I am & what I’m doing. Rest assured, I’m here at the @Whitehouse w my family.”

Or did she? Some, citing telltale language from the president’s own prolific Twitter account, believe Melania didn’t write that tweet, adding to the mystery of what’s really going on with the Slovenia-born former model. While the White House continued to insist she was back to work on her Be Best children’s kindness campaign in the East Wing, insiders tell In Touch that Melania, 48, had in fact gone into hiding. (At press time, she was expected to make her first public appearance in 24 days at an event honoring Gold Star families, which was closed to the press, on June 4 at the White House.) Humiliated by the scandal over her 71-year-old husband’s alleged affairs with porn star Stormy Daniels, 39, and Playboy

model Karen Mcdougal, 47, ridiculed by the press for her perceived missteps, drained after her surgery to treat a benign kidney condition and stuck with a job she never wanted in the first place, “Melania is stressed and at the breaking point,” one insider tells In Touch. “All of it has proven to be too much for her. She was at the end of her rope and needed to walk away from it all.”

NEW YORK STATE OF MIND

But where exactly she holed up remains a mystery. One theory: She was in NYC and is quietly preparing to move back to her triplex penthouse at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue after son Barron, 12, finishes up his school year on June 6. “Melania’s done with Washington, D.C.,” claims the insider. And a second source says she’s been considering a longer stay: “I don’t know exactly when the move is supposed to happen, but it’s being talked about as a permanent move.” (Melania’s communications director, Stephanie Grisham, denies to In Touch that Melania is making a permanent move back to NYC.) One Twitter user even claims Melania’s Secret Service detail was seen meeting in late May with reps from Brown Harris Stevens, a company that is selling condos in the swanky Waldorf Astoria hotel. (Grisham says, “That’s false. She wasn’t in NYC.”)

She may have a good reason for fleeing the nation’s capital. Her 72-year-old mother, Amalija, who also resides in a Trump Tower apartment but was spotted at the White House on June 1 (without Melania), is rumored to be in need of medical care, and Melania wants to be by her side. “She’ll always be committed to her mother,” says the insider. “Melania would leave the White House in a hot second if it meant choosing between the role of first lady and her family’s health and well-being.”

Federico Pignatelli, a longtime friend of Donald’s and Melania’s and founder of Pier 59 Studios in NYC, brushes off the crisis rumors. “Melania’s mother had some health issues that older people have,” he tells In Touch. “Melania is always making sure her mother is well.”

This is one of the biggest mysteries to ever come out of the White House” — A SOURCE

GUESSING GAME

There are other theories about why she disappeared. Some suggested she’s recovering from plastic surgery. The Chicago Tribune jokingly declared that she’s living with Barack and Michelle Obama. There were even reports that she was secretly taking care of her mother at Trump’s Bedminster Golf Club in New Jersey, but In Touch investigated the claims and determined that they were false. (Communications director Grisham insisted to In Touch, “She was in the hospital, then recovering from her medical procedure for a week. Since then, she’s been at the White House participating in several internal meetings with her staff.”)

One thing is for sure, says the insider: Melania is filled with mixed feelings toward her husband of 13 years. That was evident when she swatted his hand away in public in May and again resisted holding his hand in public in April. At the heart of the tension: Donald’s alleged affair with Stormy (real name: Stephanie Clifford) in 2006, just months after she gave birth to Barron. (Though he has denied an affair, Donald has admitted that he “fully reimbursed” his lawyer Michael Cohen the $130,000 in hush money Cohen paid to Stormy.) “Melania hates being lied to, and she won’t be played for a fool,” the insider says of the first lady, who, according to one report, fled the White House and checked into a D.C. hotel after In Touch broke the Stormy scandal.

ANOTHER NO-SHOW

Friends, however, continue to insist that all is well. When asked about Melania’s disappearance, Paolo Zampolli, the president’s longtime friend and United Nations Ambassador of the Commonwealth of Dominica, tells In Touch, “Come on, she’s just sitting with her family. She’s resting, and when she’s not resting, she’s working. It’s clear.” CNBC reporter Eamon Javers seemed to back that up when he tweeted on May 30 that he saw “the first lady walking with her aides in the West Wing yesterday afternoon.”

And yet she was never photographed or caught on video. The plot thickened the weekend of June 2: When POTUS headed to the chief executive’s Camp David retreat in Maryland with son Donald Trump Jr., daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, and daughter Tiffany Trump, Melania did not attend. (Communications director Grisham did not comment on Melania’s absence when In Touch asked why she didn’t go along.) The White House also revealed that Melania will skip the upcoming G7 summit — which she attended last year — and does not plan to attend the planned June 12 summit in Singapore with North Korea.

“No one knows what happened to her — but something is definitely going on,” says the insider. “We may never know the truth. No first lady in history has fallen off the face of the earth like Melania has.” ◼