Convention calls for FLOTUS to escort visiting spouses but Trumps do things differently.
Melania Trump’s developing role as first lady took an unconventional turn Friday when she wasn’t in Washington to escort the wife of the visiting Japanese prime minister around town, a typical FLOTUS responsibility.
But she did greet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife, Akie Abe, when they and President Trump arrived at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to board Air Force One bound for a weekend getaway at the Trumps’ Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla.
Mrs. Trump arrived separately, possibly from New York where she is still living, and greeted the president on the tarmac, according to the White House pool report from the scene at the base. (She was wearing a dark top over white wide-legged palazzo pants, with a dark coat flung over her shoulders in the chilly Washington weather.)
Together, all four got on the presidential jet, accompanied also by Trump’s elder daughter, Ivanka Trump and her husband, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, for the trip to Florida. Once on board, Mrs. Trump stood silently next to her husband as he answered questions from reporters on board.
But earlier on Friday, Mrs. Abe visited Gallaudet University in Washington, and then had lunch with members of the committee planning the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival, according to Keiko Morito, a press aide to Mrs.
