Members of the former president’s family scheduled to speak include Trump’s two sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, and Donald Trump Jr.’s fiancee Kimberly Guilfoyle.
Melania Trump spoke at both the 2016 and 2020 Republican National Conventions, but has refrained from attending political events since leaving the White House and has not attended any of her husband’s campaign rallies in recent months.
While he has made some exceptions to his public appearances at political events, including attending a few fundraisers in April, he did not attend the first presidential debate between President Trump and President Biden last month.
She also did not attend any of her husband’s court hearings in New York in his hush money trial and has not been seen in public with Trump since a jury convicted him of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Two of President Trump’s daughters, Tiffany Trump and former White House adviser Ivanka Trump, who spoke at the 2016 and 2020 Republican Conventions, have also been left off the speaker list for this year’s convention.
Ivanka Trump said in 2022 that she would support her father outside of politics going forward. She plans to attend the 2024 convention to hear her father’s speech Thursday night, but will not attend the convention in any political capacity, according to a person familiar with the matter.
President Trump’s youngest son, 18-year-old Barron, is also not scheduled to speak.
During her first convention speech in 2016, the former first lady was accused of plagiarism for allegedly stealing parts of Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic convention speech. A writer from Donald Trump’s company was held responsible.
In 2020, Melania Trump defended her husband, even at his harshest moments, in a speech saying, “We all know Donald Trump doesn’t hide how he feels about things. Total honesty is what we, the American people, expect from our president. Whether we like it or not, we will always know what he thinks.”
She said she “thought about the racial unrest in our country” during the protests over the death of George Floyd in 2020, adding that “the harsh reality is that we’re not proud of parts of our history.”
Josh Dorsey and Hannah Knowles contributed to this report.
