Melania Trump Declines to Speak at RNC After Being ‘Asked Multiple Times’ to Do So, CNN Reports

Former First Lady Melania Trump will make a rare public appearance Thursday night at the Republican National Convention, but will not address the crowd, CNN reported.

Network anchor Kaitlan Collins reported on Thursday that the wife of former President Donald Trump was asked numerous times to speak before her husband accepts his party’s nomination for president for a third straight election.

Collins told her network colleague Erin Burnett that the former first lady turned down several overtures to convince her to speak, as the wife of Trump’s running mate JD Vance – Usha Vance – did on Wednesday in Milwaukee.

Asked by Burnett what she had heard about Melania Trump’s presence in Wisconsin on Thursday, Collins reported:

Well, it’s all by design, Erin. And really as we know and witnessed as Melania Trump – when she was the first lady of the United States and Donald Trump was in office – she does things on her own accord and often cannot be pressured, or convinced into doing something. If she does not want to do it.

The CNN reporter noted that Mrs. Trump did speak at the GOP conventions in 2016 and 2020 and also said she was told Melania Trump was asked to give a third speech in support of her husband’s candidacy to end the four-day convention.

Collins reported numerous people appealed to her to address the convention to no avail:

I’m told by two sources that multiple people appealed personally to the former first lady to speak at this convention as we’ve seen, happened in the modern political era. But she declined to do so. She did not want to have a speaking role at this convention. Now that’s notable because, typically, we’ve seen, as we did last night with Senator Vance’s wife, political spouses come out we tried to reveal a softer side of their spouse. They’re not often talking about policy, but we will not be seeing Melania Trump in a speaking capacity tonight, even though she was asked multiple times to do so.

Watch above via CNN.