Melania heads to State of the Union without Trump

In her latest break from President Trump, first lady Melania Trump held a separate reception for the couple’s State of the Union guests, and even traveled to Capitol Hill in a different motorcade.

‘Mrs. Trump is honoring her guests for the true heroes they are. In addition to holding a White House reception and photo opportunity for them and their friends and family, she is accompanying them to the Capitol,’ explained the first lady’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham to CNN.

Grisham said once FLOTUS arrived at the Capitol, she and Karen Pence, the vice president’s wife, would hold a ‘more intimate meet-and-greet to engage with them on a more personal level prior to the speech,’ Grisham told the network.

Tonight will mark the first lady’s first public appearance alongside her husband since January 15, when she returned to the White House with the president and 11-year-old Barron from a different trip to Mar-a-Lago.

First lady Melania Trump (right) was reportedly ‘blindsided’ by the Wall Street Journal report that came out January 12 and said that a lawyer for President Trump (left) paid off a porn star in the last few weeks of the presidential election to keep quiet about an alleged affair

First lady Melania Trump flew to Mar-a-Lago Thursday for spa treatments, which cost taxpayers nearly $70,000, the New York Times found

Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, divulged details about her alleged relationship with Trump during a 2011 interview with In Touch Weekly, which never ran until January 17 of this year. Since then, Melania Trump has only been out in public once

During Monday’s White House Press Briefing Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (pictured) said first lady Melania Trump and President Trump’s adult children would all attend Tuesday night’s State of the Union

Melania Trump is photographed at President Trump’s first joint address before Congress a year ago. This year all

At Monday’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told DailyMail.com that Melania Trump was slated to go to tonight’s State of the Union speech.

‘In terms of family all of the presidents children, along with the first lady, will be at the State of the Union, with the exclusion of Barron, I don’t believe he will be attending as of right now,’ the White House press secretary said.

Stephanie Grisham, the spokeswoman for the first lady, gave the Times a more tenuous response saying, ‘That is her plan,’ she said.

The first lady confirmed her attendance with a tweet Tuesday afternoon, discussing the guests she and President Trump were bringing to Capitol Hill.

First lady Melania Trump indicated that she would indeed be at Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, tweeting about some of the guests she and President Trump invited to sit in the first lady’s box

THE PRESIDENT AND FIRST LADY’S STATE OF THE UNION GUESTS

FROM LEFT:

Corey Adams – Works as a skilled welder at Staub Manufacturing Solutions in Dayton, Ohio, and became a first-time homeowner in 2007. The White House said Adams and his wife benefited from the Trump tax cuts, in which their savings will go toward their two daughters’ education savings.

Steve Staub and Sandy Keplinger – Siblings who started Staub Manufacturing Solutions in Dayton, Ohio, twenty years ago. On Monday the White House attributed the ‘Trump bump’ with the Staubs’ decision to hire 14 new employees in the past year and start the work to acquire a new building. They also used the Trump tax cut funds to give their employees Christmas bonuses, the White House said.

Ashlee Leppert – An aviation electronics technician in the U.S. Coast Guard, Leppert was instrumental during last year’s hurricane season. Her most dramatic rescue involved lifting a woman to safety in a helicopter basket. Leppert thought the woman was clutching bags of clothes in her arms, when in reality, the victim was trying to transport four children to safety.

Corporal Matthew Bradford – Bradford was the first blind, double amputee to reenlist in the Marine Corps after stepping on an IED while deployed in Iraq in 2007. Bradford joined the Marines straight out of high school and first traveled to Iraq in 2006.

Jon Bridgers – Bridgers is the founder of the Cajun Navy, a non-profit, volunteer rescue and recovery organization that he created in 2016 to respond to flooding in Southern Louisiana. In 2017, the Cajun Navy became an instrumental part in the recovery efforts after Hurricane Harvey flooded swaths of nearby Texas. The group continues to collect donations for storm victims.

Preston Sharp – 12-year-old Sharp has been placing American flags and flowers on veterans’ graves since 2015, after visiting his grandfather’s gravesite and noticing that other veterans were not being properly honored. Sharp has organized the placement of over 40,000 American flags and red carnations to be put on soldiers’ graves as part of his Flag and Flower challenge. He’s now helped honor veterans in all 50 states.

Evelyn Rodriguez – is the mother of Kayla Cuevas, who was brutally murdered in September 2016 by an MS-13 gang member.

Freddy Cuevas – is the father of Kayla Cuevas, who was murdered by an MS-13 gang member on Long Island.

Elizabeth Alvarado and Robert Mickens – Alvarado and Mickens’ daughter Nisa Mickens was murdered by an MS-13 gang member, alongside her friend Kayla Cuevas on September 13. The two girls’ deaths were among 17 Long Island slayings at the hand of the vicious gang.

Officer Ryan Holets – Holets is a police officer in Albuquerque, New Mexico and has been shot twice in the line of duty. He became national news, however, when he and his wife adopted a newborn baby, whose mother was addicted to opioids.

Agent Celestino ‘CJ’ Martinez – Martinez works as a supervisory special agent for the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations unit. As part of his job, he’s worked to dismantle the MS-13 gang, arresting more than 100 members. Martinez is also a veteran, having served in the United States Air Force and Air National Guard for more than 22 years.

David Dahlberg – Dahlberg works as a fire prevention technician in southern California and during his time working at the Pine Canyon Fire Station in the Santa Lucia Ranger District he helped save 62 children and staff members from a wildfire that had encircled their camp in 2017.

NOT PICTURED:

Staff Sergeant Justin Peck – Peck has served in the United States Army for eight years. While clearing IEDS in Syria, his colleague Chief Petty Officer Kenton Stacy was struck. Peck’s swift actions, including applying a tourniquet, placing an endotracheal tube, and performing artificial respirations and CPR were responsible for saving Stacy’s life.

‘I will be joined tonight by an honorable group of Americans,’ Melania Trump wrote. ‘Sitting with me are heroes who have served our nation in times of need, families who have suffered at the hands of evil, and citizens who have embraced the American dream.’

Last week, the first lady set a precedent for abruptly changing her schedule, announcing Monday that she would no longer fly to Davos, Switzerland, to attend the World Economic Forum with President Trump.

Grisham said because of ‘too many scheduling and logistical issues’ Melania Trump would not be going.

Instead, during Trump’s first day at the conference, his wife made two back-to-back unannounced trips, first to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and then to Mar-a-Lago.

First lady Melania Trump visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Thursday, in advance of Saturday’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Before tweeting photos of the tour, the first lady hadn’t been photographed in 10 days, during which time a 2011 interview with porn star Stormy Daniels was published by In Touch Weekly detailing her alleged affair with Donald Trump

The White House didn’t invite reporters to the event, only telling the press about the first lady’s trip to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Thursday with a tweet. Later, the first lady tweeted three photographs of the excursion

First lady Melania Trump’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham made FLOTUS’ trip to the Holocaust museum public. The tour was previously unannounced

The first lady’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham tweeted about Melania Trump’s visit to the Holocaust museum on Thursday, but reporters were not invited to tag along

The White House did not invite reporters to cover the first lady’s Holocaust museum tour, nor was the press given any heads up about her travel plans to Florida, which cost taxpayers $64,600, the Times said, citing Department of Defense figures.

The first lady returned to Washington Friday evening, the same day the president returned from Davos.

On Friday, DailyMail.com also reported that the first lady had spent several nights at a posh D.C. hotel since the Daniels’ story broke, part of the swirl of stories about the Trumps’ marriage that the first lady’s spokeswoman smacked down calling them ‘salacious’ and ‘flat-out false.’

But the Times reporting, which came out Tuesday, is in line with DailyMail.com’s report, as Melania Trump has kept a lower profile in recent week than she did for most of last year.

The Journal reported on January 12 that Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to keep Daniels quiet in the weeks just before the 2016 election.

Cohen has denied Trump had a sexual relationship with Daniels, but has not denied making the payment.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, divulged details about her alleged relationship with Trump during a 2011 interview with In Touch Weekly, which never ran until January 17 of this year.

The adult film actress said she and the billionaire businessman first hooked up in 2006, at a Nevada hotel outside of Lake Tahoe, and continued to see each other through 2007.

In this undated photo, porn star Stormy Daniels (right) is photographed alongside the current president, Donald Trump (left)

Stormy Daniels poses on the red carpet at the Adult Video News Awards in Las Vegas in January 2017

The interview was reportedly conducted along with a lie-detector test.

Before the release of the In Touch Weekly Q&A, several other sources corroborated the details of the story.

Porn star Alana Evans appeared on Megyn Kelly’s portion of the Today show on January 16 and talked about how Daniels called her from Trump’s hotel room, wanting her to come along.

The same day, Slate’s Jacob Weisberg wrote a piece detailing how he had been in touch with Daniels between August and October of 2016.

She detailed her affair with Trump to him, though wanted to be paid for the story, which is something Weisberg’s publication does not do.

She also revealed that, through an intermediary, Trump had offered her money to stay silent.

A pal of Daniels’ later told the Slate writer, after Daniels stopped answering his messages, that she had taken the sum.

Melania Trump and the now-president were married on January 22, 2005, a year and a half before Daniels’ and the president’s first alleged sexual encounter.

Barron Trump was born in March 2006, four months before the now president and Daniels’ first alleged encounter, at a golf outing in July of that year.

And despite marking their 13th wedding anniversary last Monday, neither Trump mentioned the occasion, nor were they seen out together publicly.

The president was, however, dealing with the government shutdown.

The first lady has been relatively quiet on social media too.

On January 20, marking the one-year anniversary of her husband’s inauguration day, the first lady tweeted a photo of herself – sans Trump – being accompanied to the swearing-in ceremony by a military escort.

‘This has been a year filled with many wonderful moments. I’ve enjoyed the people I’ve been lucky enough to meet throughout our great country & the world!’ she wrote.

She tweeted again Thursday, once her tour through the Holocaust museum was done.

‘Thank you @HolocaustMuseum for a powerful & moving tour that honors the millions of innocent lives lost, and educates us on the tragedies and effects of the holocaust,’ the first lady said.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk