Walter Reed Medical Center responded to a woman’s wild claim that she saw Melania Trump at the hospital amid false death rumors and rampant speculation about the president’s health.
The alleged witness – Coral Ben-Atar of Dumfries, Virginia – took to Instagram Threads Saturday stating she saw the First Lady inside the Maryland facility last week.
She said she found the First Lady’s appearance ‘a little off’ considering the persistent health claims about the commander-in-chief.
When questioned about the alleged spotting of the First Lady, a spokesperson with Walter Reed Medical Center told Daily Mail: ‘Please direct your inquiry to the White House Press Office.’
Daily Mail contacted the White House for comment but did not get an immediate response. Trump dismissed speculation about his health during a press conference on Tuesday, saying he was ‘very active this Labor Day.’
Ben-Atar posted: ‘Went to Walter Reed on Thursday to be monitored in Labor/Delivery because I’m very pregnant.
‘Mid being monitored in triage guess who showed up for an unscheduled “tour” of L&D? Melania Trump. Even the staff was confused as to why she was there.
‘Looking at news reports that Trump has disappeared I find it a little odd that Melania was randomly roaming the halls of Walter Reed only to follow with reports that her husband is MIA,’ Ben-Atar, whose husband is a veteran, said.
Meanwhile, Ben-Atar, who is also a veteran, doubled down on her claim that she saw Melania last week, telling Daily Mail: ‘I didn’t interact with her!’
Coral Ben-Atar, 30, said she saw the First Lady at the hospital on Thursday, according to an Instagram Threads post she made
Walter Reed told Daily Mail to reach out to the White House when asked about the Virginia mother’s claim the First Lady (pictured on July 4) was there
Ben-Atar (pictured with her husband) doubled down on her claim about spotting Melania at the hospital to Daily Mail
Last week, rumors about Trump’s health began to swirl after several White House reporters noted the president had not been seen in public since a marathon cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
People also noted he had no events scheduled all weekend, despite Labor Day coming up.
Bogus conspiracy theories started circulating online claiming that the President was sick or even died – with the hashtag ‘#whereistrump’ going viral on Friday.
And the unfounded rumors went into overdrive after Vice President JD Vance told USA Today he was ready to step in for Trump ‘if there’s a terrible tragedy.’
The rumors were also fanned by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who asked people to pray for Trump as he claimed without evidence, that the president was in a ‘health crisis,’ and looked like he was about to ‘collapse.’
But Trump defied the claims after he was spotted heading out for the golf course on Saturday with his granddaughter Kai Trump, and Sunday by himself.
Axios journalist Barak Ravid also revealed a US official had confirmed the president was in good health.
‘Trump is OK. Will play Golf this morning,’ Ravid wrote on X shortly before images emerged of the president and his granddaughter.
On Tuesday, the Republican, 79, reacted to the social media storm about his health.
Ben-Atar said she saw Melania in the labor and delivery ward of the hospital
When asked by Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy about the rumors that went viral over the Labor Day holiday that he was mysteriously missing or perhaps ‘dead’, Trump said he did not see the social media trend himself, but that he got reports on it from his staff.
‘I have heard, it’s sort of crazy… It’s so fake… I was very active this Labor Day,’ he said.
Trump joked that the media was not holding him to the same standard as former President Joe Biden.
‘I didn’t do any for two days and they said there must be something wrong with him. Biden would not do them for months, you wouldn’t see him and nobody ever said there was ever anything wrong with him and we know he wasn’t in the greatest of shape,’ he said.
The president spent nearly 50 minutes speaking and taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, which suggests that rumors of his death were greatly exaggerated.
