Newly uncovered video shows Melania Trump appearing to leave her husband momentarily confused and upset after she pulled away her hand from his as they stepped off on Sept. 18, following their state visit to the U.K.
The CSPAN footage, unearthed by the Daily Beast, shows the first couple emerging from the presidential helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House, with Trump’s right hand clutching his wife’s left. But in “a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment,” the first lady can be seen pulling her left hand away and looking away from her husband as she tries to walk on her own, as the Daily Beast said.
A “visibly exasperated” Trump immediately looks downcast because his attempt to demonstrate affection towards his wife has been rejected in front of a pack of White House press cameras, as the Daily Beast said. The president initially tries to act for the cameras like it’s no big deal by giving a weak wave. But he then appears to remonstrate his wife, as he firmly grabs her hand again as they walk the rest of the way to the White House.
This possible tiff about hand-holding comes amid reports that the Trumps demanded separate bedroom suites in Windsor Castle during their visit last week with King Charles III and other members of U.K. government.
The Trumps managed to successfully hold hands after arriving by helicopter at Windsor Castle on Marine One on Sept. 17 and being greeted by Prince William and Kate Middleton. But a week later, on the presidential helicopter on Wednesday night, they were seen having a heated, finger-pointing exchange through the windows, the Daily Beast also reported.
In the video shot on Wednesday night, the president can be seen pointing a finger at his wife, who shakes her head in response, the Daily Beast said. Moments later, the couple disembarked from the chopper, walking hand-in-hand across the South Lawn. But they looked somewhat tense.
In May, the controversial author Michael Wolff told the Daily Beast Podcast that Trump and Melania are effectively “separated,” and “live separate lives.”
“They clearly do not in any way inhabit a marriage as we define marriage,“ Wolff said. ”And I think maybe we can more specifically say they live separate lives. They are separated. The president of the United States and the first lady are separated.”
While the White House has repeatedly denounced Wolff’s description of the couple’s marriage, the couple have long been the subject of reports about how they largely live apart.
While the White House has repeatedly denied Wolff’s observations about the Trumps’ marriage and called him “a fraud,” the New York Times reported in May that Melania effectively “vanishes from view for weeks at a time” and doesn’t really live at the White House. During Trump’s first administration, she also was known to maintain her own bedroom at the White House.
Last year, experts said Melania Trump was unlikely to move back into the White House full-time if Trump won re-election as president. The prediction that she would serve as a “part-time first lady” appears to have come to pass. CNN reported on Aug. 23 that Melania Trump had only been seen in public on 19 days during Trump’s second term as president, compared to 40 at the same point in the previous term.
Meanwhile, she appears to have made Trump Tower in New York City her home base, though she sometimes decamps to the Trumps’ Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.