Melania Trump will accompany former President Donald Trump to the Al Smith dinner in New York City on Thursday, two sources familiar with her plans told NBC News.
The former first lady has been noticeably absent from the campaign trail for much of the 2024 race. The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July was the last time she appeared alongside her husband at a political event.
One source familiar with the plans said that Melania Trump decided to attend the dinner because “it’s tradition,” adding that “this could be a precursor to more activity.”
The annual dinner, which benefits Catholic charities, is a $5,000-per-plate event that has traditionally been attended by presidential nominees on both sides of the aisle dating to the 1960s.
In late September, a Kamala Harris campaign aide confirmed that the vice president would not be attending the dinner, saying that she would instead be campaigning in key battleground states.
The move seemed to frustrate Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who then enlisted prominent New York Democrats to convince Harris to change her mind, according to four people familiar with the matter. Among those Democrats was Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who made appeals to Harris’ campaign about modifying her schedule.
While the campaign declined to change her schedule, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of New York confirmed Thursday that Harris will address attendees in a recorded video message.
It will be the first time in 40 years that a major party presidential nominee skips the dinner. The last candidate to so was Walter Mondale, a Democrat, in 1984.
Melania Trump’s planned attendance at the event comes as she promotes her new book, “Melania,” a memoir that has drawn attention in recent weeks for her frank position on abortion, which seems to be at odds with her husband’s position on the issue.
“It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government,” she writes in the book.
During an interview this month on Fox News, she said that her husband has known about her position on abortion “and my beliefs since the day we met.”
“I believe in individual freedom. I want to decide what I want to do with my body. I think I don’t want government in my personal business,” she told host Maria Bartiromo.
“He lets me be who I am, and he lets me believe what I believe. He lets me be my own person. And he does respect that, and I respect that as I let him be his own person. He has different beliefs and he will do what he believes,” she added.
The mood at the Al Smith dinner is traditionally jovial and gives candidates a chance to joke about their time on the campaign trail.
In 2016, Trump drew laughs for joking about his wife’s speech at that year’s Republican National Convention, parts of which were lifted from a previous speech given by former first lady Michelle Obama. But he was also booed for calling Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton “corrupt.”
Julie Tsirkin, Peter Alexander and Lindsey Pipia contributed.
