After missing out on the Trump family Christmas party at Mar-a-Lago, Melania Trump continued her absent streak by skipping the New Year’s Eve party. The former First Lady has an understandable reason why she isn’t making any public appearances right now, and her husband, Donald Trump, is talking about the sad family news.
In public remarks at his Palm Beach, Florida club, captured by a social media user on X, the former president confirmed that his mother-in-law, Amalija Knav, is “very ill” and is currently in a Miami-area hospital. “Hopefully she’ll be recovering,” Donald Trump said while dressed in a tux onstage in front of a crowd. He also revealed that he had just spoken to Melania by phone, but Donald Trump didn’t seem very hopeful about Melania’s mother’s health. “Hopefully, that’ll be OK, but it’s a tough one, a very tough one,” he added.
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First Lady Melania Trump’s parents Amalija, and Viktor Knav, walk across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., after deboarding Marine One, on Sunday, March 31, 2019.
Donald Trump noted that Melania “sends her love” because “she knows probably about 95 percent of the people in this room.” And then he went back to sending good thoughts to his mother-in-law, sharing, “We just want to wish Amalija that she gets better as quickly as possible.” This unfortunate turn of events will likely put Melania’s reported plans to hit the campaign trail for her husband on pause.
The 53-year-old former model has stayed under the radar since she left Washington, D.C. in 2021, largely focusing on her son, Barron, 17. With her only child headed off to college in the fall, her upcoming schedule allowed for her to pitch in on Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. However, Melania has always prioritized her family and as a source explained to Fox News Digital, “It should be no surprise that she spent this Christmas with her ailing mother.”
So, Donald Trump may be riding solo at the start of 2024. It doesn’t sound like that was a part of his campaign plans, but he knows that Melania is going to put her mom’s health ahead of his political ambitions.
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