After skipping the first three days of the Republican National Convention, Melania Trump arrived shortly before Donald Trump's speech.
ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
After skipping the first three days of the 2024 Republican National Convention, Melania Trump arrived on night four in a rare campaign appearance.
The former first lady entered Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee to enthusiastic applause, wearing a skirt suit in the classic Republican red also worn by Donald Trump Jr.'s fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and JD Vance's wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance.
She waved at the crowd before taking her spot in the VIP box next to Vance.
ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Since Donald Trump announced his reelection run in November 2022, Melania Trump has largely remained absent from the campaign trail. She has made a few rare public appearances, attending Rosalynn Carter's funeral in November 2023 and speaking at a naturalization ceremony at the National Archives in December 2023.
After an assassination attempt nearly took her husband's life on Saturday, Melania Trump released a statement calling the shooter a "monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine."
"When I watched that violent bullet strike my husband, Donald, I realized my life, and Barron's life, were on the brink of devastating change," she wrote. On Thursday night, she was not accompanied by their son, Barron.
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She did not speak at the convention, but Donald Trump thanked her in his speech for her "beautiful" letter "calling for national unity."
"It really took the Republican Party by surprise, I will tell you," he said.
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Melania Trump joined him onstage after his address, which was the longest-ever convention acceptance speech in modern history.
