Melania Trump, the former First Lady, has turned down an invitation from current First Lady Jill Biden for a customary White House tea gathering, sources report. The reason attributed to her refusal is the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago in 2022.
This decision marks a departure from the traditional practice where the outgoing and incoming first ladies meet at the White House during the presidential transition period.
Despite the scheduled post-election meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and President Joe Biden in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Mrs. Trump chose to forgo the concurrent first lady tradition.
According to a source close to Mrs. Trump, the decision is rooted in the FBI’s raid of her personal belongings at their Palm Beach, Florida home in August 2022. The source affirmed that Mrs. Trump’s refusal directly originates from the Biden administration’s sanctioning of the FBI search.
In an earlier interview on “Fox & Friends” in September, Mrs. Trump had expressed her discontent regarding the Mar-a-Lago search, terming it as an “invasion of privacy.” She recalled her shock upon discovering that her residence had been raided. “I saw unpleasant stuff that nobody wants to see,” she stated, pointing out that her wardrobe was inspected, and rooms belonging to her son Barron were searched.
The relationship between the current and former first families has witnessed several breaches in tradition. For instance, the Trumps did not extend a White House invitation to the Bidens after the 2020 election, breaking with decades of presidential transition etiquette. This was in stark contrast to Mrs. Trump’s own experience in 2016 when she was offered a White House tour by then-First Lady Michelle Obama.
The search at Mar-a-Lago, which ignited the current strain, was part of a larger federal investigation into the management of classified White House documents. However, that case was later dismissed by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in July.