Fox News host Howard Kurtz said on Sunday that former first lady Melania Trump has “barely been visible” in her husband’s latest presidential campaign.
During a Fox News segment, Kurtz highlighted Melania’s low public profile when asking Fox News analyst Kat Timpf if the timing of Melania Trump’s new memoir is “odd” given that she “has barely been visible in this campaign.”
Timpf replied that “it is a very odd timing,” adding that the former first lady “is a very polished woman.”
“When she speaks, I feel like I listen because she doesn’t speak often,” Timpf said.
The former first lady’s memoir, Melania, which is set to be released on October 8, will follow her Slovenian childhood, fashion career, and meeting her now husband, former President Donald Trump. Melania will also offer “behind-the-scenes stories from her time in the White House, shedding light on her advocacy work and the causes close to her heart.”
Kurtz’s and Timpf’s comments come just three days after Melania promoted the book in a Fox News interview on Thursday, marking her first media interview in two years. As Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social account on Sunday morning, Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt who interviewed the former first lady on Thursday, will air a special one-hour segment on Melania at 10 p.m. ET this evening.
Since leaving the White House, Melania has remained fairly shielded from the public eye.
She has not appeared on much of the campaign trail, in contrast to second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance‘s wife Usha Vance, and Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz‘s wife Gwen Walz, who have made numerous public campaign appearances.
In July, Melania appeared at the Republican National Convention where her husband was named the GOP nominee just a few days after the first assassination attempt on his life, but she did not take the podium and speak.
In a 2023 interview on NBC News’ Meet the Press, Donald Trump described his wife’s political appearances by saying, “She’s a private person, a great person, a very confident person, and she loves our country very much.” He also noted that she would be join the campaign trail when “it’s appropriate.”
Newsweek has submitted an online request to contact Melania Trump on Sunday.
Former first lady Melania Trump is seen on July 18 in Milwaukee. Fox News host Howard Kurtz said on Sunday that Melania Trump has “barely been visible” in her husband’s latest presidential campaign.
Leon Neal/Getty Images
As of Sunday, Melania is ranked #1 on the Amazon book best sellers. Readers can pre-order it now for delivery after the publication date, which is less than a month ahead of Election Day on November 5.
Earlier this month, Donald Trump implied during his speech at a campaign rally in Uniondale, New York, that he had not yet read the memoir, saying, “Go out and get her book. She just wrote a book; I hope she said good things about [me]. I don’t know, I didn’t, so busy. She just wrote a book called Melania go out and buy it, it’s great.”
In her Thursday Fox interview promoting the book, Melania described Donald Trump as a “family man” who had “kindness and positivity.” She also addressed the two assassination attempts on him, both of which she found out about via TV. She told Earhardt, “I think something was watching over him. It’s almost like the country really needs him.”
Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, are in an extremely tight race for the White House. Most aggregate polls show Harris leading in the popular vote, but their deadlock in several key battleground states leave forecasts of the Electoral College a toss-up.
