For the past week or so, Melania Trump's disappearance from the public eye following her surgery last month has been the topic of speculation, conspiracy theories, and more, prompting the White House to issue a statement that Mrs. Trump would be present at a Gold Star family event which was closed to the press.
This morning, Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller went live with an article featuring a lovely picture of a smiling Melania at what appears to be a military-themed event while Trump is at the podium.
An image search on Google reveals that the image is from Getty Images and is a May 27, 2017 photo of Melania Trump "on stage next to her husband US President Donald Trump during a meeting with US military personnel and families at Naval Air Station Sigonella after G7 summit of Heads of State and Government, on May 27, 2017."
Until now, I'd shrugged off the speculation and conspiracy theories about Melania Trump. But it is hard to keep doing that when the White House appears to be colluding with right-wing media to conceal the reasons she is out of the public eye. Is she seriously ill? Is she recovering from cosmetic surgery? Is she even in Washington, DC? Did he hit her and give her a black eye?
All of these questions were ones we could ignore, but when the White House starts using right-wing online outlets like the Daily Caller to shore up their claims that Melania is just fine, it gets more difficult.
Oddly, the only "press" allowed in the room was from the Daily Caller, though they chose not to feature an image from their video on their site. Perhaps it is because you cannot tell it is Melania Trump in the video.
This tweet is interesting, too:
So if it's a health issue, she's certainly entitled to privacy. But the more the White House uses a single right-wing outlet to shut down the chatter, the more suspicious I'm going to be.
Maybe It's all fine, and maybe it's not. I'm certainly not reassured by the use of a year-old image in an article claiming she was seen in public, and a video showing her back.
