Melania Trump Says She Plans to Be at White House Full Time

Melania Trump, the former and incoming first lady, said in an interview broadcast on Monday that she planned to live and work full time in the White House during Donald J. Trump’s second term, addressing speculation about whether she would be a regular presence in Washington.

Mrs. Trump told “Fox and Friends” that she would travel as needed to New York, her longtime home where she stayed regularly during Mr. Trump’s first term, and his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, which has become Mr. Trump’s official state of residence.

“When I need to be in New York, I will be in New York,” she said. “When I need to be in Palm Beach, I will be in Palm Beach. But my first priority is, you know, to be a mom, to be a first lady, to be a wife.”

Mrs. Trump offered some hints about her likely role in the second Trump White House. She said she would continue her “Be Best” campaign, a program targeting youth mental health issues and social media use, and said she was still hiring staff members for her office — people she said would not have “their own agenda.”

Mrs. Trump did not immediately move in to the White House when her husband was inaugurated in 2017, but she said the second move-in would be more routine.

“This time I have everything,” she said. “I have the plans. I could move in. I already packed. I already selected the, you know, furniture that needs to go in.”

The Fox interview came as Mrs. Trump has increased her public profile after largely going out of sight after Mr. Trump’s 2020 defeat.

Mrs. Trump released a series of videos this fall, ahead of the publication of her memoir, “Melania.” Amazon said earlier this month that its streaming service would release a documentary about Mrs. Trump’s life, which started filming in December. Mrs. Trump will be an executive producer of the film, which is set to play in theaters and on the streaming service in the second half of the year.

“I just feel that people didn’t accept me maybe,” Mrs. Trump told Fox. “They didn’t understand me the way maybe they do now. And I didn’t have much support.”

Some people, she said, may have seen her as “just a wife of the president.”

“But I’m standing on my own two feet, independent,” she added. “I have my own thoughts. I have my own yes and no. I don’t always agree what my husband is saying or doing. And that’s OK.”

Asked whether President Biden and Jill Biden, the first lady, had been welcoming during the transition, Mrs. Trump avoided addressing whether she had interacted with them.

“They’re still living there, and they will be out on January 20,” she said. There are only five hours to move the Bidens out and the Trumps in, she said, “so everything needs to be planned to the minute.”