Washington DC - First Lady Melania Trump recently made her first public appearance in over a month, sparking wild speculations about what provoked her sudden return.

During an interview with MeidasTouch on Sunday, former deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews discussed how she met nearly everyone within the administration during Trump's first term, yet "never met the first lady."

"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," she said.

Matthews went on to suggest that the timing of Melania's recent return to the public eye at a White House event was "a little suspect."

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This is because President Trump has been facing widespread scrutiny over his relationship with Natalia Harp, a young female aide who reportedly pens intense letters of admiration to him.

"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," Matthews continued.

"I wonder if her rate has gone up after all of this news, because I'm sure she doesn't like any of this being out there - whether or not it's true," she added.

This isn't the first time Melania has gone missing for notable periods of time.

After the January 6 Capitol riots in 2021, she remained absent from her husband's side until about halfway into his 2024 presidential campaign, when she reemerged to promote her self-titled memoir.

The distance between the two, and Melania's seeming lack of enthusiasm for his MAGA agenda, have sparked heavy speculation about the state of their marriage, with many believing they have been separated for years.

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In Trump's second term, the president and his allies have desperately tried to elevate his wife's status and net worth by launching meme coins with her name and securing a massive deal with Amazon to make a documentary film that ultimately tanked at the box office.

In one notably bizarre instance back in April, Melania held a surprise press conference, during which she gave a speech attempting to clear her name about rumors of her and her husband's alleged connections to notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

As Matthews was giving her interview on Sunday, Melania joined her husband to attend a Formula 1 racing event at the White House, which Harp also attended.

In a video that recently went viral on social media, Melania is seen exiting the suite she and her husband were in as soon as Harp entered the room.