President Trump says Melania skipped Ireland visit over long flight
First lady Melania Trump skipped President Donald Trump’s Ireland trip and the RNC convention, but joined her husband at a 9/11 memorial.
Members of the Trump family – including first lady Melania Trump – have been spotted by President Donald Trump’s side this week as his busy schedule brought him to Sept. 11 anniversary events in Washington, D.C., to Dallas for the Republican midterm convention and, this weekend, on a visit to Ireland to meet with political leaders and watch the Irish Open.
Donald Trump Jr. joined his father at the Republican National Convention and on his trip to Ireland, while Melania Trump was by the president’s side on Sept. 11. Trump aides Walt Nauta and Natalie Harp also traveled to Ireland.
Melania says of 7-hour Ireland flight, she’s ‘not that friendly’
Melania did not join the president in Ireland this weekend nor at the Republican midterm convention on Sept. 9 and 10, although she was with him at the Pentagon on Sept. 11 to mark the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon in 2001.
“My wife is here in spirit, she’s watching right now, she said ‘say hello’ because she’s very friendly with these two people,” Trump said in Ireland on Sept. 12, seemingly referring to U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Edward Walsh and his wife, Lynn. “I said, ‘Well why don’t you come with me?’ She said, ‘Well, it’s a seven-hour trip, maybe I’m not that friendly.’ I said, ‘put on a Make America Great Again hat, and come on, let’s go.’ But sends her regards.”
The first lady’s public appearances have been sparse this summer, including a full month without such an event.
Donald Trump Jr. is in Ireland and spoke at Republican convention, but no Kai
Trump’s son, Don Jr., his new wife, Bettina Anderson, and three of his children joined the convoy to Ireland.
“He’s like a different human being,” Trump said of Don Jr.’s recent wedding, while giving remarks in Ireland. “He had a lot of energy. Now he has a little less energy. That’s a good thing.”
Trump Jr. also joined his father in Dallas at the Republican convention and gave a speech on the second night in which he attacked the “radical left” and honored the legacy of his friend, the late Charlie Kirk. The speech coincided with the one-year anniversary of Kirk’s killing.
Trump Jr.’s popular eldest daughter, Kai, spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2024 and is known for the passion for golf she shares with her grandfather, but she did not appear to accompany her father and grandfather to the midterm convention nor to golfing events in Ireland. She recently started her first year at the University of Miami, where she is a member of the NCAA Division I women’s golf team.