President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump’s 21-year marriage remains under a microscope.
Eagle-eyed viewers never have to look hard to spot signs of marital stress in the couple’s behavior and body language.
Some have recently noticed something different about the couple, who have been together for two decades, especially as scrutiny of one spouse’s changing looks continues.
Trump, 80, and Melania, 56, married in 2005. They entered the White House 11 years later, when Trump won his first presidency in 2016.
Melania returned to Washington, D.C., for Trump’s second inauguration in 2025, where the couple projected the image of a happy household at various inaugural parties.
However, the couple is rarely seen together these days. Melania even disappeared from the public eye for a month over the summer.
The first lady finally returned at a Rose Garden event in August. She then popped back out with Trump for the commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Photographers snapped Melania standing beside her husband at the ceremony in Arlington, Virginia. One particular picture of the ex-model garnered a lot of attention.
Melania stood stone-faced as the national anthem played. The president saluted at her side. Both wore expressions that suggested exhaustion or indifference.
“Nice of Melania to try to match her husband’s face droop,” outspoken Trump critic Aaron Rupar captioned his Threads post about Melania and Trump’s now-viral photo.
Rupar’s followers joined in on sharing their thoughts on the snapshot. Social media did not hold back when slamming the Slovenian-American immigrant.
“I noticed that. She looks unhappy, if not angry,” a Threads user wrote in reaction to the “face droop” comment.
A second individual suggested that Melania is becoming Trump’s doppelgänger, writing, “She’s starting to look like him.” Another said, “That’s her resting I really don’t care face.”
“They’re both such miserable people. You can just tell. And what the fuck is going on with his mouth?” another person stated.
Unverified rumors speculate that their sham marriage has been a dark cloud over them for years.
“Maybe she needs to charge him more to show up at events?” one commenter sarcastically wondered. Similarly, someone stated, “He had to pay her.”
More online venom targeted Melania and Trump as the president heads into the upcoming midterm elections with an approval rating only hovering around 39 percent.
While the image from the 9/11 ceremony drew disapproving responses online, Trump and Melania will likely get warmer receptions during their separate trips to the Tar Heel state.
Melania Trump visited Ashe County, North Carolina, on Sept. 15, while Donald Trump traveled separately to Gastonia the following day to campaign for GOP Senate candidate Michael Whatley.
While Trump has maintained a busy travel schedule that includes regular stops at his golf resorts for weekend outings, Melania only seems to resurface for special occasions.
Their forthcoming separate excursions to the same state in the same week could be viewed as another sign of the alleged spousal conflict that has consumed Trump’s time in office.
The “Melania question” became a major talking point in political circles. In 2025, Trump biographer Michael Wolff provided supposed behind-the-scenes details of the polarizing pair’s marriage arrangement.
Wolff, 73, claimed he was told by a close insider that Melania “hates [Trump’s] f—king guts.” He also reported that the first lady no longer lives with her husband full-time in Washington.
The White House responded to Wolff’s allegations by calling the “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” book author an “imbecile of the highest order.”
