Donald and Melania Trump looked unusually loved-up on the White House lawn Friday as they hopped onboard Marine One to head to the Pope’s funeral.
The president wrapped his arm around the first lady’s waist as they kicked off their trip to the Vatican, where they will join over 20 different heads of state in paying their final respects to the late Pope Francis.
Melania has maintained a relatively low profile during Trump’s second term, sparking occasional speculation about their relationship despite expressing affection for Donald on several occasions, including in her memoir last year.
The gesture marks a notable shift in the couple’s body language; Melania often swats away or rejects her husband’s physical advances or public displays of affection.
Her typical body language suggests Melania has “very little reciprocal liking” for her husband, a body language expert told the Daily Express, who said her smiles tended to be “contrived” and showed “no emotion.”
“With Melania, there’s still a reluctance from her. She smiles on stage, but it appears to be a fake smile,” expert Darren Stanton said of Melania’s body language during Trump’s inauguration. “She’s smiling because she has to, rather than instinctual.”
“There was very little reciprocal liking. There was very little tacitness—no hugs or being really close to each other,“ he added. ”They’re pretty distant with no obvious signs of affection.”
Author Michael Wolff claimed a Mar-a-Lago insider told him, “She f—ing hates him” while writing his book All or Nothing about Trump’s return to the White House and said the source was “bewildered that this needed saying.”
“In some sense, this is the darkest Trump hole,” Wolff wrote. “Nobody knows the answer to the what-about-Melania question. Not even the people closest to him. What is the nature of the marriage? Nobody can tell you.
“Nobody can tell you where Melania even actually lives. It may be, on its own peculiar terms, the most successful marriage in America. Or, it may be ready to blow up at any moment.”
But there are signs that the couple may be slowly but surely getting closer. During the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on Sunday, Melania was spotted holding her husband’s hand, marking a rare appearance with an even rarer public display of affection.
The first lady typically divides her time between Washington, D.C., their Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and New York City, where their son, Barron, is a freshman at New York University.
According to some sources, Trump’s staff doesn’t even know where she lives.
The Trumps are expected to return to the United States shortly after the funeral, possibly by Saturday night.
Former President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, who are notably more comfortable showing affection in public, are also expected to attend the funeral.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Argentinian President Javier Milei will also be in attendance.
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