Melania Trump not on speaker list for GOP convention
Former first lady Melania Trump is not on the list of headliners and keynote speakers announced Saturday for the Republican National Convention. She is, however, still expected to attend the convention, according to an adviser for former president Donald Trump.
The former first lady’s absence on 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.
Members of the former president’s family who are scheduled to speak include two of 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.
Melania Trump 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.
There have been some exceptions for public appearances at political events, including attending a few fundraisers in April, but she 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.
Trump’s two daughters who spoke at the Republican conventions in 2016 and 2020, Tiffany Trump and Ivanka Trump, his former White House adviser, are also absent from the list of convention speakers this year.
Ivanka Trump had said in 2022 that she would support her father outside of the political arena moving forward. She still plans to attend the 2024 convention for her father’s Thursday night speech, but will not participate in the convention in any political role, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Trump’s youngest son, 18-year-old Barron, is also not scheduled to speak.
During her first convention speech in 2016, the former first lady was accused of plagiarism, lifting portions of Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic convention speech. A writer for Donald Trump’s business took the blame.
In 2020, Melania Trump used her speech to make the case for her husband, rough edges and all, saying, “We all know Donald Trump makes no secrets about how he feels about things. Total honesty is what we as citizens deserve from our president. Whether you like it or not, you always know what he’s thinking.”
Speaking during demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in 2020, she said she had “reflected on the racial unrest in our country,” adding that “it is a harsh reality that we are not proud of parts of our history.”
Josh Dawsey and Hannah Knowles contributed to this report.
