Donald Trump says Melania will be on the campaign trail 'when it's appropriate'

by Jack Birle, Breaking News Reporter

September 15, 2023 06:06 PM

Former President Donald Trump says that his wife, former first lady Melania Trump, will be campaigning for his 2024 presidential run "when it's appropriate."

Trump, speaking in an interview with NBC News's Kristen Welker, said that his wife will hit the campaign trail "pretty soon" after not making appearances at his campaign events since he announced his 2024 candidacy in November 2022.

“When it’s appropriate, but pretty soon,” Trump said during a clip from the interview, which aired on NBC's Today on Friday.

“She’s a private person, a great person, very confident person and she loves our country very much. She’ll be at the appropriate time she’ll be out there. Honestly, I like to keep her away from it — it’s so nasty and so mean,” he continued

The former president said that Melania Trump has been with his youngest son, Baron, in the meantime.

Unlike in previous presidential campaigns, Trump's family has not been as present on the campaign trail at events and rallies. Trump's sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have promoted their father's 2024 presidential campaign, but Ivanka Trump decided against campaigning for her father this time around.

"I love my father very much. This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics. While I will always love and support my father, going forward I will do so outside the political arena," Ivanka Trump said shortly after her father announced his 2024 presidential bid.

Trump is the clear front-runner in the Republican primary, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average, leading his next closest opponent, DeSantis, by more than 40 percentage points.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/donald-trump-melania-on-campaign-trial-when-appropriate

China shows its structural weakness with response to disappearing ministers

by Tom Rogan, National Security Writer

September 15, 2023 03:19 PM

Imagine if Secretary of State Antony Blinkensuddenly disappeared. The State Department first said he was ill. Then Biden replaced Blinken without comment. As the days and weeks passed, the Biden administration simply refused to comment. Months later, we have no more information as to where Blinken is and what led him to disappear. Now imagine that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin suddenly disappeared. Imagine that officials are only saying that they know nothing about what's happened, even though the nature of his position means that some must know something.

That's exactly akin to what has happened in China over the past few months.

First,Foreign Minister Qin Gang disappeared without a trace in July. He hasn't been seen since. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has offered no details on his whereabouts or reason for them. It says only that Wang has been replaced by his hawkish predecessor, Wang Yi. Now Defense Minister Li Shangfu has disappeared. According to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. officials believe Li has been removed from office. Whatever the cause, Li's departure is deeply embarrassing for Xi Jinping. The all-powerful president only ascended Li to the powerful Central Military Commission last October.

Asked about Li's disappearance on Friday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said she didn't know anything about it. But while it may technically be true that Mao doesn't know where Li has gone, when Chinese officials stick with the refrain, "I know nothing," they only underline the authoritarian secrecy that so defines their government. This is a problem for Beijing as it claims to offer only trustworthy "win-win cooperation" with the world. U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel has rightly drawn attention to Beijing's lack of transparency, observing that line from Shakespeare's Hamlet, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

The deeper problem for Beijing is that its secrecy on these disappearances is only the tip of the iceberg. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokespersons often resort to snarky short rebukes when asked legitimate but uncomfortable questions. This can often become absurd. On Friday, for example, AFPasked about Chinese espionage in the U.K., to which the reply was: "We’ve already made clear China’s position on this issue earlier. The allegation that China spies on the U.K. is entirely groundless. We have no interest in and will not interfere in the U.K.’s internal affairs."

Considering that Chinese espionage targeting the U.K. ranges widely across domains of intellectual property theft, political subversion, agent recruitment, cyber activity, and beyond, Mao's "entirely groundless" assertion is prima facie absurd. Everyone with a brain knows it. But the Foreign Ministry's impulse toward evasiveness and hostility underlines the Chinese Communist Party's reflexive inability to accept perceived vulnerability. Officials fear that to do otherwise might undermine the party, which is the ultimate red line for any apparatchik such as Mao.

Of course, by adopting such a disingenuous stance with the international community, China ultimately achieves that same undermining result anyway.By appointing, promoting, and then "disappearing" officials in short order, Xi also looks to be either vulnerable or incompetent. And he breeds the perception that Beijing, fundamentally, cannot be trusted.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/china-shows-structural-weakness-disappearing-ministers