The whispers became murmurs and then a buzz and now it's a downright concern: where, oh, where is First Lady Melania Trump?
We know that Melania underwent successful surgery related to her kidneys a few weeks ago, something that obviously requires rest and relaxation for recovery. But that was almost three weeks ago and the First Lady hasn't been seen in public since, including skipping this weekend's trip to Camp David.
The chatter even prompted Melania to drop a tweet from her @FLOTUS account on Wednesday that seemed like a kinder, gentler version of something her husband would tweet, assuring us all is well.
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But that didn't stop one internet rapscallion from having a little fun with the way Twitter has obsessed over Melania's absence from the spotlight. David Burrows, an entrepreneur and marketing professional, is behind the prank which feeds off of all the guesses Twitter users are throwing out.
He scooped up WhereInTheWorldIsMelania.com and set the site up to redirect to the Wikipedia page for locations that are suggested in tweets that use the hashtags "#WhereInTheWorldIsMelania" and "#WhereIsMelania."
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"I noticed so many people and media outlets speculating on where Melania Trump has been for the past several weeks," Burrows told me via email. "People think she's hiding, has left the country or recovering from plastic surgery. What I've noticed is that her appeal crosses party platforms and political agendas."
Burrows, a self-described "rabble-rouser and prankster," was responsible for a similar prank last year that played off of the controversy over White House aide Kellyann Conway's seemingly unethical call to "but Ivanka's stuff" for a good cause.
The Melania redirect isn't as extensive as the Ivanka one, Burrows notes. "It's more of a simple gamification for guessing where she could be," he says.
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"Is she at the White House? Could she be sipping a cocktail in a tropical resort? Melania has a big fan base and the bottom line is, we all care about and like her as our FLOTUS. We just want to know where she is and that she's okay."
For now, we can only assume that Melania is just fine like she says and is somewhere, doing something, doing all she can to Be Best.
Topics Melania Trump Politics
