Melania's Reported Reaction To Joining The Trump Campaign Trail Won't Debunk Divorce Rumors

What's the truth about Donald and Melania Trump's marriage? Journalist Michael Wolff is dropping a hint in his new book that reinforces the theory that the first couple has a hands-off relationship. "All or Nothing: How Trump Recaptured America,"  dropping on February 25, 2025, explains how the president's fiery rhetoric and take-no-prisoners attitude helped him overcome huge odds to win back the White House. It certainly wasn't with Melania's help, Wolff writes (via Newsweek): "Since the first indictment in New York, when Melania had simply laughed at the campaign's effort to get her to accompany her husband ('Nice try'), it had been clear that she wasn't going to show up." 

The first lady's refusal to show public support was a "freak-out" for Trump's team, Wolff alleges. The 2022 FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago had already painted a predictable picture of the Trump marriage: namely, that the couple sleep in separate bedrooms. Staff feared Trump might lose votes if he couldn't convince his faithful that he and his wife were still rock-solid. All that changed, Wolff says, after the July 2024 assassination attempt. Trump's narrow escape from death "[gave] him a maximum hero's electoral mantle, but it also repositioned his convention as the joyous and abject coronation of which he dreamed," Wolff writes. Fans could now shed any lingering doubts about the president's marriage or his felony conviction. They were convinced — as was Trump — that God himself was on his side. The crisis also prompted Melania to issue a rare statement describing her husband as a "generous and caring man" and calling for the country to come together. Even without that support, however, Trump's victory was all but assured.

Just days before its release, Michael Wolff's book is already getting major criticism from President Donald Trump's inner circle. Asked by Newsweek to comment, communications director Steven Cheung called the journalist a "fraud" with "a sick and warped imagination" and a "peanut-sized brain." A spokesperson for Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner also denied Wolff's claims that the president's daughter and son-in-law refused to defend him against claims of antisemitism. (This would certainly have been another red flag in Donald and Ivanka Trump's relationship.) 

Don't expect any comment from the first lady defending her marriage, though. Wolff's claims about Melania Trump's refusal to stump for her husband may not be entirely accurate, but there's no denying she prefers to keep a low profile where politics is concerned. Nor has she ever felt obligated to put on a show of being an adoring wife when it wasn't necessary. She stood by Donald's side with a smile during the inaugural festivities and graciously hosted a dinner for state governors a month later, but when she's not needed for official events, she prefers to let other family members take the spotlight. Ivanka and one of her sons attended the Super Bowl alongside Donald, while son Eric Trump brought his family to cheer on his dad at the Daytona 500. Donald and Melania Trump's marriage will never equal Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter's romance, but they seem content with the way things stand for now.