Trump Defends Wife and Spreads Conspiracies About Her in the Process

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, who has long reveled in conspiracy theories, spent at least part of Wednesday morning lashing out at the media about its coverage of the first lady, Melania Trump, while in the process repeating the kind of unfounded rumors about his wife that would normally attract legal action from him and his notoriously litigious family.

Melania Trump has been missing from the public eye in the three weeks since her five-day stay at Walter Reed National Medical Center to treat what her aides called a benign kidney condition. On Monday she surfaced for the first time in a closed White House event, but Wednesday afternoon she was scheduled to make a more public appearance at a briefing with her husband on the approaching hurricane season.

Donald Trump marked the event by repeating and denying rumors about the first lady that have spread throughout social media.

“The Fake News Media has been so unfair, and vicious, to my wife and our great First Lady, Melania,” the president wrote on Twitter. “During her recovery from surgery they reported everything from near death, to facelift, to left the W.H. (and me) for N.Y. or Virginia, to abuse. All Fake, she is doing really well!”

Donald Trump added that several reporters had publicly said that they’d seen the first lady in the White House over the past week, but “never reported the sighting because it would hurt the sick narrative that she was living in a different part of the world, was really ill, or whatever. Fake News is really bad!”

Last week, at least one reporter noted on Twitter that he’d seen the first lady walking with her aides in the White House, and her office has said that Melania Trump has taken several internal meetings during her recovery.

Historians say no modern first lady has prized her privacy more than Melania Trump. But in a digital era where a polarized public tends to traffic in conspiracy theories — at times fueled by the president — her absence has led to more than a little speculation about her whereabouts.

Without clarity from the White House, some journalists have used their platforms to speculate about Melania Trump’s life, including whether she was a victim of domestic violence. The guesswork has expanded beyond the media. On Monday, as Melania Trump attended the event with Gold Star families, a contingent of observers on Twitter wondered whether the sparse footage captured of the event was indeed from that day.

And the timing of Melania Trump’s departure from the public eye was abrupt and baffling: It came as she was ramping up her public appearances and in the midst of launching her official platform, Be Best, which will focus on children’s issues.

Melania Trump’s stay in the hospital was also shrouded in secrecy.

In the hours following her procedure, aides wore scrubs around her but said that the procedure had been successful and without complications. The White House offered few updates on the first lady’s condition, and this week, her office lashed out at journalists for asking.

The first lady’s public re-emergence is tied to one of her interests. Stephanie Grisham, her communications director, said in an email Wednesday that Melania Trump would be attending a briefing on the coming hurricane season at the Federal Emergency Management Agency because “it is an issue that she cares very much about.” Last year, the first lady and her husband traveled to Puerto Rico to visit families affected by hurricanes, serving them food and visiting relief centers.

When asked about the first lady’s health, Grisham’s response was brief.

“She feels great,” she wrote, “doing well.”