First Lady Melania Trump's conspicuous absence from public life has revealed a shifting dynamic around President Donald Trump that may be contributing to increasingly erratic behavior, according to a former administration official who spoke with The Daily Beast.

The Daily Beast recently published a detailed examination of the first lady's public appearances throughout 2026, concluding that she has attended official events or been seen in public fewer than 40 times this year. Her 2025 schedule was similarly sparse. During Trump's first term, Melania Trump also spent the opening months living at Trump Tower in New York rather than the White House, citing her son Barron's schooling—a pattern that drew public attention at the time and set expectations for her unconventional approach to the first lady role.

Anthony Scaramucci, who served briefly as White House press secretary during Trump's first term—lasting just 11 days in July 2017 before being dismissed—told the outlet in a recent podcast episode that the first lady's limited presence reflects a broader reality of Trump's second term: the president is not as surrounded by family as he once was. Scaramucci, who later became a vocal critic of Trump, observed that Trump now appears to have "nobody in there," contrasting the current situation with his first term, and argued that the growing distance from his wife in particular has contributed to more unstable conduct.

"When she was more friendly with him, she would tell him to tone it down and he would actually listen to her," Scaramucci explained. "There's very few people that Trump listens to."

Addressing the couple's relationship directly, he added: "I think it's distant for a number of different reasons, but I think they probably have grown apart."

Scaramucci pointed out that Trump's family did not enjoy their time in Washington, D.C., during his first term, which has contributed to their reluctance to return. Beyond the first lady, Trump's sons have been focused on their business ventures, while his eldest daughter, Ivanka, has maintained her distance, reportedly due to concerns about the reputational harm her association with the first term caused her. Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, served as senior White House advisers throughout the first term, roles that drew sustained scrutiny over potential conflicts of interest.

"The family unit that came into Trump 1.0 didn't like it," Scaramucci continued. "They didn't like the blistering in Washington. They didn't like the 360-degree firing squad. I don't think they like the spotlight that was put on them. I think that when he ran again, they all more or less said, 'okay, that, you know, that one was on all of us; this one's on you.'"

Despite the effect on the president's demeanor, Scaramucci suggested that Trump himself "didn't care" about his family's decision to remain away from Washington this time, though he acknowledged it came as a surprise.

"He's there without his family. And I was surprised by that, by the way. I would have said, this is going to be hard for him because he does everything with his family and they are not in the mix with him," Scaramucci said.