Melania Trump declines Donald’s offer to…

Former First Lady Melania Trump was scheduled to make a rare public appearance at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night, but she would not speak to the crowd, CNN reported.

The network’s host Kaitlan Collins noted Thursday that former President Donald Trump’s wife was asked to speak multiple times before her husband accepted his party’s nomination for president for a third consecutive election.

Collins reportedly told her network colleague Erin Burnett that the former first lady rebuffed several attempts to convince her to speak, as Trump’s running mate JD Vance’s wife — Usha Vance — did in Milwaukee on Wednesday.

When Burnett asked what she had heard about Melania Trump’s presence in Wisconsin on Thursday, Collins replied:

Well, it’s all intentional, Erin. And as we know and have seen 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 to do something. If she doesn’t want to do it.

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

Collins reported that many people asked her to speak at the convention, but to no avail:

Two sources have told me that several people personally appealed to the former first lady to speak at this convention, as we’ve seen, has happened in the modern political era. But she declined. She did not want to have a speaking role at this convention. That’s interesting because typically, as with Senator Vance’s wife last night, we see political spouses come forward and we’re trying to show a softer side of their spouse. They don’t talk policy very often, but we won’t be seeing Melania Trump speaking tonight, even though she’s been asked to do so multiple times.