WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump blasted "the Fake News Media" in two tweets early Wednesday for fanning speculation about first lady Melania Trump, who hasn't been seen in public for more than three weeks following a medical procedure last month.
"The Fake News Media has been so unfair, and vicious, to my wife and our great First Lady, Melania," Trump tweeted. "During her recovery from surgery they reported everything from near death, to facelift, to left the W.H. (and me) for N.Y. or Virginia, to abuse. All Fake, she is doing really well!"
He followed that up with a second tweet, claiming that some reporters saw Melania Trump headed to a White House meeting and withheld the information to propel conspiracy theories about her health.
" ... Four reporters spotted Melania in the White House last week walking merrily along to a meeting," the second tweet began. "They never reported the sighting because it would hurt the sick narrative that she was living in a different part of the world, was really ill, or whatever. Fake News is really bad!"
However, that sighting was noted in some news accounts, while the speculation that Trump cited in his initial tweet was not widely reported in mainstream news media. Such rumors were rampant on social media.
The first lady, who attended a private event at the White House on Monday, is scheduled to make her first public appearance this afternoon when she joins the president at a briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency on federal preparations to respond to hurricanes this season.
