Although the former first lady was not there in person, model and influencer Amber Rose praised her onstage.
Recalling a meeting with Melania and Donald Trump, Rose said, “The first lady was gracious and smart, with a smile that will brighten up any room.”
Melania Trump is not on the list of announced convention headliners and keynote speakers. She is, however, still expected to attend the convention, according to an adviser for the former president.
Her absence from the list of speakers is a notable break away from a decades-long tradition, in which the wives of Republican presidential nominees deliver remarks at the convention.
She had delivered remarks at both the 2016 and 2020 Republican conventions. But she has largely abstained from participating in political events since leaving the White House and has not attended any of her husband’s campaign rallies in recent months.
After the attempted assassination of the former president, Melania Trump released Sunday a lengthy statement expressing sympathy for the victims of the shooting and thanking those bridging the political divide by “remembering that every single politician is a man or a woman with a loving family.” She also wrote that when she saw the shooting Saturday, she realized her life and the life of their son, Barron, “were on the brink of devastating change.”
There have been some exceptions for public appearances at political events, including attending a few fundraisers in April, but the former first lady did not attend Trump’s first presidential debate against President Biden last month. She also wasn’t at any of the court proceedings in her husband’s hush money trial in New York, nor was she seen in public with Trump after a jury found him guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
The Trump family members sitting with the former president on the first night of the convention are all slated to deliver remarks in the coming days: Trump’s sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump; his daughter-in-law and Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump; and Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancée. They were seated Monday night with Trump’s daughter Tiffany Trump and her husband, Michael Boulos, neither of whom are scheduled to deliver remarks at the convention.
Notably, Trump’s other daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner — who both served as Trump’s White House advisers — were not seated with the former president.
Ivanka Trump had said in 2022 that she would support her father outside of the political arena moving forward, and she is not among the list of announced convention speakers. She still plans to attend the 2024 convention for her father’s Thursday night speech, but she will not participate in the convention in any political role, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private discussions.
Barron Trump, 18, is also not scheduled to speak.
Patrick Svitek, Josh Dawsey and Marianne LeVine contributed to this report.
