First lady Melania Trump and the youngest Trump child arrived to spend their first night as official residents of the White House on Sunday, almost five months after President Trump was inaugurated.
Mrs. Trump’s press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, confirmed their official move from Trump Tower in New York to the family quarters, in an email to USA TODAY and a tweet on the official FLOTUS account.
“Looking forward to the memories we’ll make in our new home! #movingday,” Trump’s account tweeted.
Mrs. Trump and Barron, 11, accompanied the president from the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., where he spent the weekend, arriving via Marine One on the White House lawn shortly after 8 p.m. Sunday, according to the presidential pool report.
As the president exited the aircraft, he was followed by Barron, wearing a gray T-shirt reading “The Expert.” Mrs. Trump was wearing a sleeveless white top and light brown culottes, and carried a matching Hermès Birkin bag, according to White House Wardrobe on Twitter, which tracks her fashion.
The couple entered the White House holding hands, the pool report said.
The family also was accompanied by Slovenian-born Melania Trump’s parents, Viktor Knavs and Amalija Knavs, who have been living with their daughter and grandson in Trump Tower. Melania’s parents are already familiar figures at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s resort in Palm Beach, Fla., and are likely to be seen more often now at the White House. They are not expected to move in full-time, as former first lady Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, did.
Shortly after the November election, Donald Trump said his wife and the youngest of his five children would not be moving into the White House immediately so that Barron could finish the school year in New York.
Last month, the first lady announced that Barron would be attending a private Episcopal school, about 20 miles from the White House in suburban Maryland, in the fall. St. Andrews Episcopal School, praised for its “diversity,” is a co-ed college prep school for grades 6-12, with tuition topping more than $40,000 a year.
Mrs. Trump, 47, is the first first lady in the modern era not to move into the White House on Jan. 20, adding to the list of firsts about her, including her status as the first foreign-born first lady in two centuries.
In the early months of the administration, she was only occasionally seen carrying out FLOTUS duties (hosting the spouses of foreign leaders, attending lunches and galas at the White House), but some of her official engagements were so low-key they were unannounced and were not covered by a press pool.
The former fashion model’s first big splash as first lady was last month when she accompanied the president on his first foreign trip, a nine-day, five-country tour in which she said little publicly but always looked smashing in couture clothes by designers native to the countries they visited.
