Ex-Trump Aide Claims Melania Only Shows Up at Events for The Don When She's 'Paid' — After First Lady Went Unseen for a Month
A former White House aide claimed Melania Trump disliked White House life.
Aug. 24 2026, Published 1:45 p.m. ET
A former White House aide has claimed Melania Trump has been checked out of her duties as First Lady for years, alleging she soured on the role during her husband Donald Trump’s first term in office and needed to get paid to show up at events, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews claimed she never met Melania during the president's first term, from 2017 through 2021, while questions remain about why the former model had so many mysterious disappearances from the public eye despite her high-profile role.
White House Aide Claimed She Met Other Trump Family Members
A former White House aide claimed she never met Melania Trump during her husband's first term in office.
"When I was working on the campaign for a year and then at the White House for the last seven months of the first administration, I met the vice president; I met almost every cabinet official. I met members of the First Family; I met all of them at one point or another. The only person I never met was Melania Trump," Matthews, 31, dished on MeidasTouch’s On Sunday with Jack Cocchiarella podcast.
"I never met the first lady, even though I was the deputy spokesperson for the president on his campaign and in the White House. And I think that’s pretty telling," the former aide, who quit following the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, said.
Melania Trump 'Didn't Want to Stay at the White House'
Melania Trump was nearly absent on the campaign trail during her husband's run for the White House in 2016.
"That kind of sums it up, where it was this known thing that she was just not around, and she didn’t want to be around," Matthews spilled.
The communications pro also made the claim that the First Lady hated living in the White House and desperately missed her life in the luxurious three-story penthouse atop New York City's Trump Tower, which the family called home before The Don won the presidency over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
"She didn’t want to stay at the White House. She thought the White House was old and falling apart, and she wanted to be in New York and do her own thing," Matthews shared.
'I Heard You Missed Me'
Melania Trump joked about her prolonged absence from the public eye at an August 20 White House event.
Melania raised eyebrows with her latest absence when she vanished from the public eye for an entire month after attending the July 19 World Cup final game in New Jersey.
She finally reappeared at the White House on August 20 for a Fostering the Future event, joking ahead of her speech, "I heard you missed me. Here I am."
Matthews noted, "I have to admit that the timing is a little suspect with all of the Natalie Harp things happening in the news," referring to reports claiming Donald and his appointments secretary had grown unusually close.
Melania Trump Reportedly 'Paid' to Show Up at Events
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Donald Trump kissed Melania after his win on election night in 2016.
Matthews even alleged that the Slovenian native was paid for campaign appearances during Trump's initial run for the White House in 2016.
"We know too that – it’s been reported – that Melania gets paid for showing up at events when they were on the campaign trail, which is crazy to think that you have to pay your own wife to show up somewhere," she told Cocchiarella.
