Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ The Wh ite House says f irst lady Melania Tr ump didn’t join her husband when he heads to the Camp David presidential retreat for the weekend. President Donald Trump boarded the presidential helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House in the afternoon with his daughters Ivanka and Tiffany, his oldest son Donald Jr., and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. The group appeared headed for a family weekend, minus the first lady, at Camp David in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains. Trump’s youngest son, Barron, 12, also was not seen boarding the helicopter. Melania Trump’s absence will mark 22 straight days without a public appearance by the first lady following a recent hospitalization. The first lady was last seen May 10, when she and the president welcomed home three Americans who had been released from detention in North Korea. The White House announced four days later that his wife had been hospitalized to treat a kidney condition. She stayed five days before returning to the White House. On Wednesday, Melania Trump tweeted that she’s “feeling great” and is at the White House working hard for children and American families.
■ Former President George H.W. Bush has tweeted a cheerful message f rom his hospital bed while reading a book about himself and his late wife. The 41st president is 93 and is recovering at a hospital in Biddeford, Maine, after experiencing low blood pressure and fatigue that kept him from attending Memorial Day festivities in Kennebunkport, where the Bush family has their summer home. He posted a picture of himself Friday reading the book George & Barbara Bush: A Great American Love Story. Bush says the book is “a wonderful walk down memory lane” and “another reminder of how lucky” he has been in life. Barbara Bush died in April at age 92. She was married to the former president for 73 years. A Bush spokesman said earlier in the week the former president was in good spirits but would be in the hospital for a few more days. Bush, who has a form of Parkinson’s disease and a history of pneumonia and other infections, arrived in Maine on May 20 after being treated for a blood infection at a Houston hospital.