Melania Trump took a day trip to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami on Monday for the unveiling of a healing garden.
She departed Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach by motorcade roughly an hour after her husband left for his Palm Beach golf club.
Spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said she was heading to Miami ‘to participate in the unveiling of @Nicklaus4kids new healing garden & the naming of the new cardiac Intensive Care Floor.’
Melania Trump took a day trip to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami on Monday for the unveiling of a healing garden
Her motorcade left Mar-a-Lago after 9 am local time on Monday morning and made the 72-mile drive to Miami
The visit was a secret until Melania Trump left Mar-a-Lago, when DailyMail.com observed a second motorcade leaving the resort.
Grisham told DailyMail.com that the first lady was traveling 72 miles by SUV to Miami for the hospital visit — her second trip to a pediatric center in five days — and had plans to rejoin her husband in Palm Beach before traveling with him to Miami, again, in the afternoon.
The first lady will introduce her husband before he delivers remarks on political situation in Venezuela, her spokeswoman said.
In a statement provided by the White House on her trip to the children’s hospital, Melania Trump emphasized the link between meditation and modern medicine.
She said: ‘This healing garden is a perfect example of nurturing children’s health physically, emotionally & spiritually. I believe in the power of meditation & taking time to be still & quiet esp when trying to heal from an illness.’
A White House readout of the trip, which reporters did not witness, said she was at the hospital to celebrate the opening of the ‘Morton and Linda Bouchard Healing Garden’ and the ‘Esrick Dream Foundation Cardiac Intensive Care Floor,’ which had just been renamed.
The statement noted that Nicklaus Children’s Hospital is home to the largest pediatric teaching program in the region.
‘One of the fundamental pillars making up the First Lady’s Be Best initiative is the well-being of children. The addition of the hospital’s new healing garden is a prime example of how to help nurture, support, and strengthen children currently fighting diseases,’ the White House statement said.
The first lady credited the donors who the initiatives are named after for helping the hospital ‘offer more care and comfort to children who are already battling to get well.’
‘I hope the new garden brings renewed strength to each child that visits,’ she said.
Per a White House news release, the first lady delivered remarks at the event and participated in a butterfly release with Barbara Nicklaus alongside a hospital patient and the child’s twin sister.
President Trump was meanwhile visiting his golf club again this morning, a trifecta of trips to the links since he arrived in Palm Beach three days ago.
Trump and his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, were spotted riding together in the presidential motorcade just after after 8:30 am on Monday morning.
They arrived at Trump’s course and club in West Palm Beach ten minutes later.
President Trump is at his golf club again this morning, a trifecta of trips to the links since he arrived in Palm Beach three days ago
The president and his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, were spotted riding together
The president left Washington late Friday afternoon, less than 12 hours after he declared a national emergency on the border during a Rose Garden ceremony and signed a proclamation making the crisis official.
Four times since then he traveled to Trump International Golf Club — one time for dinner and three times for unknown activities that are suspected to be rounds of golf. He wore polo shirts and red ball caps on all three day trips.
Mulvaney and his wife were among friends and staffers of the president who dined with him at Trump International Golf Club on Sunday evening.
The White House acknowledged that Mulvaney and other senior members of the administration were in Palm Beach for the three-day weekend in a Saturday afternoon statement on the status of trade negotiations with China.
‘This afternoon, President Trump will meet with members of his trade team and receive an update on the ongoing talks with China. Ambassador Lighthizer, Secretary Ross, Mick Mulvaney, and Peter Navarro will join the President in person at Mar-a-Lago and Secretary Mnuchin, Pat Cipilone , Larry Kudlow, Kevin Hassett, Derek Lyons and Clete Willems will join by phone,’ a statement from the president’s spokeswoman said.
It wasn’t clear how the president was spending the rest of his time over the holiday weekend and whether he was on the golf course the three times he visited the club during daytime hours.
The White House does not, as a routine practice, say whether the president is golfing or identify his partners.
Mulvaney and Trump were dressed casually on Monday when DailyMail.com spotted them through the window of the president’s limousine as it left Mar-a-Lago in the morning.
President Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and senior White House staffers are spending the weekend in Palm Beach. Trump’s private resort, Mar-a-Lago, is pictured above
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump land in West Palm Beach International Airport aboard Air Force One at the start of the three-day weekend
President Trump signed hats and greeted his supporters upon his arrival in Florida
The president has visited his golf course every day since arriving in Palm Beach – he’s seen here giving a double thumbs up after his Saturday trip
The president spent spent five hours at his golf club on Sunday, before returning later for a two-hour dinner with club members, White House aides and friends.
According to Politico, Ike Perlmutter, the chairman of Marvel, and his wife Laurie were at the Sunday night meal. Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy and Kimberly Reed, the president’s nominee to head the Export-Import Bank, were also at Trump International on Sunday evening. So was Democratic lobbyist Tom Quinn.
President Trump’s son Eric and his wife, Lara, were also at dinner along with the first lady, Barron Trump and Melania Trump’s parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, the publication reported.
Sunday night the president played host to Mulvaney and his wife and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders and her husband, Bryan, as well.
Trump joined them at his golf club at 7:30 pm, after another 10-minute drive from Mar-a-Lago.
The president appeared to be in a fouler mood on Sunday when he visited Trump International Golf Club wearing red after a Twitter tirade
President Trump seemed to be watching former FBI Director Andrew McCabe’s ’60 Minutes’ interview on Monday morning before his daily golf club outing
McCabe’s interview had aired the evening before while Trump was heading to dinner
The president signaled an hour later, as he motorcaded to his golf club, that he had just finished watching a recap of the interview on ‘Fox & Friends’
He seemingly missed the latest episode of ’60 Minutes,’ which airs at 7 pm EDT on Sunday evenings.
The program featured an extended interview with Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI. Trump ripped McCabe as ‘deranged’ in early Monday morning tweets that suggested he had just watched the 30-minute interview that took up most of the weekly news program.
Trump is due to depart Florida for Washington this evening.
He’ll deliver remarks this afternoon in Miami on the fight for democracy in Venezuela to ex-pats of the nation that’s in turmoil.
First lady Melania Trump will introduce him at the Florida International University event and join him on Air Force One for the flight back to Washington.