First ladies often act as representatives of their husbands' campaigns, traveling the country to deliver speeches and meet voters at events. During all of Trump's presidential campaigns, Melania was noticeably absent, making only occasional appearances.

The New York Times reported in 2023 that while Melania Trump privately supported Donald Trump's 2024 campaign, she rejected his offers to campaign with him.

When asked about Melania Trump's absence, Donald Trump told "Meet the Press" in 2023 that he likes to keep her away from the campaign trail because "it's so nasty and so mean."

"She's a private person, a great person, a very confident person, and she loves our country very much," he said of his wife.

While Donald Trump moved into the White House after the inauguration, he told reporters that Melania Trump stayed behind in New York with their then-10-year-old son, Barron Trump, so that he could finish out the school year.

Washington Post reporter Mary Jordan wrote in her book, "The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump," that Melania Trump also used the time to renegotiate her prenuptial agreement.

In January 2018, The Wall Street Journal broke the news that one of Donald Trump's lawyers, Michael Cohen, transferred a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to keep her from speaking about their alleged 2006 affair.

After reports emerged of Donald Trump's alleged affair, which he denied, Melania Trump backed out of a trip to Switzerland and other public engagements. She also arrived at the 2018 State of the Union address in a separate motorcade in a break from the tradition of presidents and their spouses arriving together.

Melania Trump's then-director of communications, Stephanie Grisham, said that the first lady did not travel with her husband because she was accompanying the guests of honor, the BBC reported.

Donald Trump was later found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up the payment to Daniels. After the hush-money trial reached its verdict in May, Donald Trump continued to deny the affair and called the trial a "witch hunt."

After The New Yorker published a report detailing a former Playmate's alleged affair with Donald Trump, which he denied took place, Melania Trump once again did not appear publicly by her husband's side.

Instead of taking the traditional walk with Donald Trump across the White House lawn, she arrived at the presidential helicopter in a separate vehicle.

"With her schedule, it was easier to meet him on the plane," Grisham told CNN of Melania Trump's separate route.

For her first Christmas in the White House in 2017, Melania Trump lined the East Colonnade with bare white branches that cast shadows on the hall. In 2018, she filled the East Colonnade with dark-red trees that garnered comparisons to costumes in the dystopian TV series "The Handmaid's Tale." The following year, clear acrylic panels lined the hall, and her final White House Christmas featured potted plants.

Her avant-garde Christmas decorations garnered some criticism, while others praised her unconventional choices.

"Everyone has a different taste," Melania said of the critical responses to her Christmas decorations at a town hall event hosted by Liberty University in 2018.

In a speech at the First Baptist Church in Dallas in 2021, Donald Trump said that Melania Trump "didn't get exactly a fair shake" when it came to her Christmas decor choices.

"She would make the most beautiful Christmas decorations," he said. "And I remember she made these magnificent red trees, and the media said, 'Oh, that's terrible.'"

Throughout US history, first ladies have chosen outfits with deeper meanings that reflect their values. Laura Bush wore red to help bring awareness to the dangers of heart disease. Michelle Obama chose to highlight up-and-coming designers from underrepresented backgrounds. Jill Biden appeared at campaign events wearing boots emblazoned with the word "vote."

Melania Trump's "I really don't care, do u?" jacket, worn while traveling to visit immigrant children at the US-Mexico border in 2018, seemed an unusually combative wardrobe choice for a first lady.

Melania Trump wrote in her 2024 memoir that her press secretary wouldn't let her clarify that the jacket's message was directed at the media.

"The media claimed the jacket meant I did not care about the children or the border, which was clearly not true," she wrote.

After Donald Trump won the 2016 election, the Obamas hosted the Trumps at the White House in a long-held tradition ensuring a smooth transition of power.

While Barack Obama and Donald Trump met in the Oval Office, Michelle Obama hosted Melania Trump for tea in the Yellow Oval Room and discussed raising children in the White House.

When Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, he refused to concede and did not invite the Bidens to visit the White House ahead of the inauguration.

Outgoing presidents and first ladies have traditionally attended presidential inaugurations even after painful defeats.

Upon leaving the White House, Donald Trump and Melania Trump skipped Joe Biden's inauguration, held their own farewell ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base, and flew to their Palm Beach home.

Melania Trump delivered speeches at the 2016 and 2020 conventions. In 2024, she only attended the final day of the Republican National Convention and did not speak.

Donald Trump accepted Joe Biden's invitation to meet at the White House as part of Joe Biden's pledge to ensure a peaceful transfer of power. However, Melania Trump, who released her memoir, "Melania," in October 2024, turned down the first lady's offer to meet for tea.

"Mrs. Trump will not be attending today's meeting at the White House," Melania Trump's office wrote in a statement on X. "Her husband's return to the Oval Office to commence the transition process is encouraging, and she wishes him great success. In this instance, several unnamed sources in the media continue to provide false, misleading, and inaccurate information. Be discerning with your source of news."

In November, CNN reported that Melania Trump was "unlikely" to move into the White House full time.

A week before the inauguration in January, when asked by Ainsley Earhardt of Fox News about her plans, Melania Trump said that she would primarily live at the White House, but would also divide her time between Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago.

"I will be in the White House," she said. "And, you know, when I need to be in New York, I will be in New York. When I need to be in Palm Beach, I will be in Palm Beach."

She added that her "first priority" was to be a mom, first lady, and wife and to "serve the country."

The yacht, named after Sequoyah, a leader of the Cherokee Nation, measured 104 feet long. In its heyday, it had elegant cabins of mahogany and teak with brass finishings.

The US government bought it from a Texas oil tycoon in 1931 for $200,000, and it was soon reserved for use by presidents.

The vessel was berthed at Washington Navy Yard, a short drive from the White House.

Hoover was so enamored of the Sequoia he even used a picture of it on his 1932 Christmas card.

However, at a time when many Americans were suffering from unemployment and poverty due to the Great Depression, the card drew criticism from political opponents.

In the president's bedroom cabin, the presidential seal decorated the wall above the bed and the bedspread.

It was ideal for hosting family gatherings, or meetings with foreign leaders and their staff.

President Harry Truman added the piano to the salon after becoming president in 1945.

Lyndon Baines Johnson later added a drinks bar.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who used a wheelchair for much of his presidency, had an elevator installed so he could access each deck.

According to legend, he also decommissioned the vessel so he and Prime Minister Winston Churchill could enjoy alcoholic drinks on deck while they planned their strategy in World War II.

At the time, no alcohol was permitted on US Navy vessels.

The vessel was intended as a place presidents could use as a private retreat, and there are no official records of its guests. As a result, rumors have long circulated about what took place on board.

In June 1973, President Richard Nixon hosted Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev on the Sequoia, where the two negotiated the SALT-1 nuclear arms treaty.

It was Nixon who embarked on more trips on the boat than any other president, taking more than 100 in total.

During the Watergate crisis, he used the boat as a refuge.

Nixon told his family of his intention to resign the presidency over dinner on the Sequoia before retiring to the boat's saloon to drink scotch and play "God Bless America" on Truman's piano, CBS News reported.

On May 29, 1963, President John F Kennedy celebrated his 46th birthday aboard the Sequoia.

Among the guests for the dinner-party cruise were actors David Niven and Rat Pack member Peter Lawford, who was married to Kennedy's sister.

His brother Bobby Kennedy, the attorney general, was among the family who attended, alongside select members of Washington high society.

Guests described the event to The Washington Post as a raucous party, with French cuisine, flowing Champagne, and the president even making a pass at the wife of a party guest, a prominent journalist.

The birthday party was to be his last. Seven months later, Kennedy was assassinated on an official visit to Dallas.

Johnson would use a projector to watch Western films on board the ship.

He also used the Sequoia as a retreat to cajole potential allies and formulate policy.

On board, he hosted members of Congress whom he lobbied over his landmark civil rights bill and strategized with officials as the US became further mired in the Vietnam War.

"Of course, he can get on a plane and go to Florida or anywhere else, but that requires throwing the machinery into motion," Kissinger told Newsweek in 2012. "But here, he just can say at 5 o'clock: 'I'm going to the boat, I'm taking four or five people. And you don't have to call it a meeting and you don't have to prepare the papers.'"

When Carter took office in 1977, he sought to make good on his election pledge to strip the White House of the trappings of an "imperial presidency."

With running costs totaling $800,000 a year, the Sequoia had to go.

The New York Times reported it sold to a private buyer, Thomas Malloy, for $286,000, or almost $1.5 million in today's money, when adjusted for inflation. Malloy turned the boat into a tourist attraction.

Later, Carter revealed that selling the vessel was a decision he came to regret.

"People thought I was not being reverent enough to the office I was holding, that I was too much of a peanut farmer, not enough of an aristocrat, or something like that. So I think that shows that the American people want something of, an element of, image of monarchy in the White House," he told the JFK presidential library in a 2011 interview.

After its sale, the presidential yacht had a succession of owners.

It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987, spent the '90s in a shipyard, and ran chartered cruises until 2014.

However, the Sequoia fell into disrepair in subsequent years amid a legal battle over its ownership. It sat decaying in a Virginia dry dock, overrun by raccoons.

Its current owner, investor Michael Cantor, began restoring the vessel in 2019 and plans to house it at the Richardson Maritime Centre in Maryland when the work is complete, Boat International reported.

In 1973, Arab countries that were part of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) imposed an oil embargo on the United States in retaliation for their military support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. As a result, gas prices skyrocketed and shortages caused long lines at gas stations. While the embargo ended in 1974, it exposed the vulnerabilities of US reliance on foreign oil.

In response to the 1973 energy crisis, Carter created the Department of Energy in 1977. He implemented tax credits for homeowners who installed solar panels and passed the National Energy Act into law in 1978, moving to reduce oil imports and promote energy conservation.

In his speech, Carter emphasized the importance of "harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil."

"Today, in directly harnessing the power of the sun, we're taking the energy that God gave us, the most renewable energy that we will ever see, and using it to replace our dwindling supplies of fossil fuels," Carter said in his speech.

Reagan moved to fulfill his campaign promise to abolish the Department of Energy in 1981, but he walked back his effort in 1985 due to insufficient support in Congress. He allowed Carter's solar-panel tax credits to expire in 1985, instead championing nuclear-power initiatives.

He also believed in allowing free-market capitalism to dictate the production and use of fossil fuels rather than government regulations, a policy that became known as "Reaganomics."

Carter's solar panels were removed during repairs to the White House roof and were not reinstalled. 

"Putting them back up would be very unwise, based on cost," Reagan's White House press secretary Dale Petroskey told the Associated Press at the time, according to Yale Climate Connections.

The White House remained without solar panels until 2002, when the National Park Service installed three solar energy systems that provided hot water for grounds maintenance staff and the White House pool, according to the White House Historical Association.

In 2017, Carter leased 10 acres of his farmland in Plains, Georgia, to the solar energy company SolAmerica Energy, The New York Times reported. The company built 3,852 solar panels, enough to provide more than half of the power for the 683-person town.

"It's very special to me because I was so disappointed when the panels came off of the White House, and now to see them in Plains is just terrific," former first lady Rosalynn Carter told The New York Times.

The name "Shangri-La" was the name of a fictional kingdom in the book "The Lost Horizon" by James Hilton.

The retreat center was originally built in 1938 as a summer camp for use by government employees as part of The New Deal's Works Progress Administration, so it wasn't equipped for chilly weather.

David Eisenhower was 5 years old when his grandfather named the presidential retreat after him. Today, David Eisenhower works as the director of the Institute for Public Service and a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication.

Aspen has four bedrooms, a kitchen, an office, and a patio.

The helicopter flight from the White House to Camp David takes around 30 minutes, according to Eisenhower's presidential library.

There is also a second pool further out on the grounds.

Camp David measures 180 acres and includes miles of walking trails through the Catoctin Mountains.

President Jimmy Carter convened Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David in 1978, where the leaders negotiated a peace treaty between the two countries.

Plaid and wicker furniture were popular decor trends in the 1970s.

FDR was the first US president to deliver fireside chats over the radio in 1933. Reagan brought them back in 1982, and every president since has continued the tradition except for President-elect Donald Trump, who stopped recording weekly addresses about two years into his first term.

Reagan held a groundbreaking ceremony for the chapel at Camp David in 1988, and George H.W. Bush dedicated the space during his presidency in 1991.

George H.W. Bush revisited the chapel to celebrate Easter in 2006 during the presidency of his son, President George W. Bush.

President George W. Bush had a placard made for his golf cart labeling it "Golf Cart One," a reference to Air Force One. He drove it during visits to Camp David in 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Leaders from the UK, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, and France joined Obama at Camp David in 2012 to discuss the European debt crisis.

Camp David also has a bowling alley and a movie theater.

Trump described Camp David as "very rustic" and told reporters in 2017 that they would tire of it after 30 minutes.

He spent more time at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, which became known as his "winter White House."

The wicker dining set and plaid couches have been replaced with sleek leather chairs and recessed lighting.