After nearly a decade, Meet The Press moderator Chuck Todd handed over the reins of the show to Kristen Welker, a chief White House correspondent for NBC. And Kristen stumbled into what would turn out to be a bombshell of a first interview: Donald Trump.

Sitting down with the former President, Welker had plenty of questions for him. But one portion of the interview was of great interest to those who have been following Trump’s wife, Melania, during his indictments and campaign.

The former First Lady has been almost completely absent from everything that her husband has been up to. She hasn’t gone to a single arraignment or deposition. She hasn’t appeared for photo ops at his campaign stops. She hasn’t even had her picture taken by Getty Images (the photographers of record for most news in America and around the world) since the end of 2022.

Trump told Welker that Melania was busy taking care of Barron, who is now 17. And then he strangely said, “She loves that boy.”

The quadruply-indicted subliterate criminal defendant who is also now an adjudicated rapist didn’t follow that with a “And I love him too”. Or “We both love that boy”. Just “She loves that boy” almost as if he was jealous in a way. But then again, Trump has in the past referred to Barron as “Melania’s son”:

Trump indicates that his drive against vaping came at the behest of Melania. He then describes his son Barron in a very odd way.

"That's how the First Lady involved. She's got a son — together — that's a beautiful young man, & she feels very very strongly about it." pic.twitter.com/s5wNzUCSmj

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 11, 2019

So where has she been? Laying low, apparently. But Trump says that may be about to change. Hinting at that, Welker asked Trump, “We’ll see her on the trail soon?”

“Yes. Soon? Yeah, pretty soon. When it’s appropriate, but pretty soon, Trump said. “She’s a private person, a great person, a very confident person and she loves our country very much. And honestly, I like to keep her away from it. It’s so nasty and so mean.”

Funny, he never tried to keep her away from it before. He wore her around like arm candy. And Trump fails to mention here that it’s him who makes the campaign nasty and mean in the first place.

NBC has also sent out an invitation for President Joe Biden to sit for an interview on Meet The Press, and if it came next, that would be two big interviews in a row for the brand new host.

We doubt, however, that there would be quite as much pressure during an interview with Biden as there is with Trump. Where with Biden, you could settle in for a discussion about family, ice cream, or cars, with Trump you’d have to be constantly on your toes trying not to offend his arrogant sensibilities.