Melania Trump has 'lingering cough' from COVID-19, cancels first campaign rally in months

First lady Melania Trump canceled her first campaign rally in months on Tuesday, citing a "lingering cough" from her COVID-19 diagnosis earlier this month.

"Mrs. Trump continues to feel better every day following her recovery from COVID-19, but with a lingering cough, and out of an abundance of caution, she will not be traveling today," her chief of staff and spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said in a statement to USA TODAY.

Trump, 50, had been scheduled to accompany President Donald Trump to a campaign rally in Erie, Ohio, on Tuesday evening. It would have been her first campaign rally appearance in more than a year and her first public sighting since she and the president tested positive on Oct. 2 for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

She has been in the White House ever since, announcing last week that she had recovered.

She did not visit the president when he went to the hospital for three nights for treatment of COVID-19, nor did she appear when he returned to the White House.

He has since appeared at multiple campaign rallies around the country but she has not been with him.

Her last public appearance related to the campaign was on Sept. 29 at the first presidential debate in Cleveland.

The first lady's absence from the Erie rally will almost certainly be a disappointment to the president, his campaign staff and his supporters, who admire Melania Trump and are not concerned that she has been a low-key and unconventional FLOTUS, at least in the judgment of first-lady historians.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic put much of the country in lockdown in March, she was not an especially visible first lady, and often declined to alert the media whenever she scheduled a public appearance. She was also largely absent from the 2016 campaign trail, choosing to stay at home with Barron, who was then only 10.

Although unseen in recent weeks, she has not been silent. Last week, she posted a statement on the White House website attacking her former friend and advisor, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, and the media for covering "salacious claims" made in Wolkoff's book, "Melania and Me," about the bitter end of their friendship.

Wolkoff has been promoting her book in media appearances since September, including releasing portions of secret tapes she made of phone conversations in which Trump expressed negative views of her job and her media coverage.

"A person who said she 'made me' even though she hardly knew me, and someone who clung to me after my husband won the Presidency," Trump wrote. "This is a woman who secretly recorded our phone calls, releasing portions from me that were out of context, then wrote a book of idle gossip trying to distort my character."

Meanwhile, Trump has continued to issue cheery tweets about White House events, such as the return of visitors for the annual Fall Garden Tours.

"What a pleasure to see children, families & others enjoy the beauty of the South Lawn & #WhiteHouse gardens during the annual #FallGardenTours," she posted with several pictures on Sunday. "Autumn is a beautiful season at the @WhiteHouse & @POTUS & I hope you enjoyed your #WHGarden visit!"

Trump also has issued statements about her bout with COVID-19 and how son Barron, now 14, fared when he was tested. Last week, she said Barron, after an initial negative test, next tested positive for the virus.

After she and the president tested positive, she said, "Naturally my mind went immediately to our son. To our great relief he tested negative, but again, as so many parents have thought over the past several months, I couldn’t help but think 'what about tomorrow or the next day?' ”

She said her fears "came true" when he was tested again and it came up positive.

"Luckily he is a strong teenager and exhibited no symptoms. In one way I was glad the three of us went through this at the same time so we could take care of one another and spend time together. He has since tested negative."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Melania Trump has lingering cough from COVID-19, cancels campaign trip