SNL Once Put Melania's Hands-Off Approach To Politics & Her Marriage On Blast

Melania Trump's glaring absence from Donald Trump's time in the White House, and his 2024 campaign, has not gone unnoticed by pundits and commentators. After Melania snubbed Donald's PDA at the Republican National Convention last year, the rumors of a looming divorce began to swirl once again, and her hands-off approach to her marriage became something of a late night joke and TV talking point. In fact, the first lady's almost total absence from the campaign trail even served as comedy fodder for "Saturday Night Live."

Back in October 2024, "SNL" kicked off an episode with the sketch "Family Feud Election 2024 Cold Open," which pitted the democratic nominee Kamala Harris (played by Maya Rudolph) and her crew, against Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) and his crew. Kamala's "Feud" team included comics playing her husband Doug Emhoff, her VP pick Tim Walz, and President Joe Biden. Meanwhile, Donald was supported by fictionalized versions of Donald Trump Jr. and JD Vance — but there was one big omission.

After Steve Harvey (played to perfection by Kenan Thompson) introduced Donald, he moved over to introduce Melania, but the podium was simply empty. "Oh, she ain't here," Steve said, surprised. "It's so strange," Donald mumbled. "I could have sworn she was standing right beside me about two years ago." The apparent coldness and distance between Donald and Melania has seemed to grow over time, which may have been why "SNL" had such an easy target to hit when it came to Melania's near-total disappearance from the campaign trail.

Melania Trump certainly takes after her husband in one way — she understands the importance of self-promotion. Melania largely remained distanced from Donald Trump's 2024 election bid. She only really hit up talk shows or made public appearances in order to promote her memoir, "Melania," (which Donald accidentally admitted he'd never read). Other than that, the main times she and Donald have made headlines together were largely for awkward moments, like when he totally forgot to actually mention her existence in his recent Mother's Day post.

In fact, since Donald took office for the second time, Melania's been focusing much of her time, energy, and attention on an upcoming documentary about herself, which has been a priority for her over Donald. In fact, one of the only times she's visited the Executive Mansion was for the Brett Ratner-directed doc. "Melania has been busy shooting her documentary and that has taken place in several locations, including the White House," a source told People in February.

Historian Katherine Jellison told The New York Times in May, "We haven't seen such a low-profile first lady since Bess Truman, and that's going way back in living human memory, nearly 80 years ago." Sources also told the outlet that, out of Trump's first 108 days in office, Melania had only been at the White House for about 14 days, meaning her absence isn't just a figment of people's imaginations, but a tangible fact (and a great source of potential future comedy for "Saturday Night Live" sketches).