Melania Trump avoids spotlight amid husband's indictment, campaign

Her relative absence from Donald's high-profile appearances comes amid his arraignment in New York.
Melania Trump

Former first lady Melania Trump is reportedly not comfortable partaking in her husband's political activities and wants to remain uninvolved in the New York indictment as it pertains to his alleged involvement in making a hush money payment to another woman with whom he allegedly had an extra-marital affair.

Her relative absence from the former president's high-profile appearances comes amid his arraignment in New York. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 charges in connection with a 2016 payment his then-personal attorney, Michael Cohen, made to Stormy Daniels. Melania was not present for the arraignment.

A source told PEOPLE magazine that "Melania is not now or hasn't recently taken part in her husband's political events" and that doing so is "not comfortable for her... Melania can be aloof and not particularly friendly because she simply wants to be left alone."

Another source told PEOPLE that the former first lady "remains angry and doesn't want to hear [the alleged hush money payment] mentioned."

Early on Tuesday, the official account of the Office of Melania Trump posted a statement, deriding the use of unnamed sources in reporting about her alleged feelings on personal and professional matters.

"News organizations have made assumptions about the former First Lady's stance on subjects that are personal, professional, and political over the past few weeks. In these articles, unnamed sources are cited to bolster the author's claims," the account stated. "We ask readers to exercise caution and good judgment when determining whether or not stories concerning the former First Lady are accurate, particularly when they fail to cite Mrs. Trump as a source of information."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.