Melania Trump Is Not Exactly Helping Her Case

It’s been three weeks and a day since Melania Trump has made a public appearance. (She was last seen on May 10, and on May 14, she underwent an “embolization procedure to treat a benign kidney condition.”) This has set off a wildfire of conspiracy theories, and every attempt to quell the suspicion or act like everything is normal has only made things worse. For example, when someone tweeted from the @FLOTUS account that Trump was “feeling great,” but included no visual evidence, it only served to make the situation even more dubious. And today the White House announced that Trump would not be joining her husband on his Camp David retreat this weekend.

Normally this would probably be met with the same old fanfare about how this is just because Trump hates the president—especially because she has opted out of Camp David trips before. But, in the current “environment,” the announcement has only thrown gasoline on the various theories.

Weird, “holding staff meetings on initiatives/long-term planning” is the exact vague phrasing that I use when people ask me why I haven’t been seen in public in 22 days.

No matter which way you slice it, the extensive absence of Melania Trump is just weird. At this point I just hope that she is healthy and okay, to be honest. And in case she does make a public appearance soon, let’s just take a moment to get a good look at her, you know, just in case?