Former first lady Melania Trump is stepping into the spotlight after months out of the public eye.
She is set to appear at an event hosted by the National Archives and Records Administration later this month, during which 25 people from 25 nations will be sworn in as new U.S. citizens. The December 15 ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. in the National Archives Museum’s Rotunda as part of the agency’s annual celebration of Bill of Rights Day, which commemorates the ratification of the Constitution’s first 10 amendments.
Melania, who is a naturalized citizen from Slovenia, will deliver remarks with Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan. She was sworn in as a U.S. citizen shortly after the birth of Barron, her son with Donald Trump, in 2006. When her husband became president in 2017, she became the second naturalized woman, behind Louisa Adams, to become first lady.
The event is a rare appearance for Melania, who withdrew from public life after her husband left office in January 2021. Despite Donald’s vigorous 2024 campaign schedule and various civil and criminal cases, Melania has not been seen on the campaign trail or with the former president during his court appearances.
“Cloistered behind the gates of her three homes, she sticks to a small circle—her son, her elderly parents and a handful of old friends,” The New York Times reported in July. “She visits her hairdressers, consults with Hervé Pierre, her longtime stylist, and sometimes meets her husband for Friday night dinner at their clubs.”
While Melania has not appeared on the campaign trail with Donald, she endorsed his candidacy in a May interview with Fox News Digital—the only public interview she’s done since her husband announced his White House bid more than a year ago. Her approach is noticeably different from Donald’s first campaign, during which she was a main fixture of his run for the presidency.
Melania also made a rare public appearance last week, joining first lady Jill Biden and former first ladies Michelle Obama, Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton at the memorial service for former first lady Rosalynn Carter in Georgia.
Her remarks at the National Archives will come at a time when her husband’s relationship with the agency remains fraught. In February 2022, the archives asked the Justice Department to investigate Donald’s handling of White House records, a probe that led to 40 federal charges that were brought against the former president by special counsel Jack Smith. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case.
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On the same day that Shogan, who will attend the event with Melania next week, began leading the National Archives in May, it was reported that the agency would give Smith more than a dozen records that showed Trump and his top advisers had knowledge of the declassification process while he was president.
“The Presidential Records Act (PRA) requires the President to separate personal documents from Presidential records before leaving office,” the National Archives said in a June statement rebuking claims that Donald was allowed to keep sensitive materials.
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