Trump Administration Highlights: U.K. Trade Deal Will Be Announced Thursday (2025)

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Trump and Britain say they have a trade deal but have offered few details.

“Because of our long time history and allegiance together, it is a great honor to have the United Kingdom as our FIRST announcement,” he wrote. “Many other deals, which are in serious stages of negotiation, to follow!”

Mr. Trump is expected to announce the deal from the Oval Office later Thursday.

The president had not specified which nation would be part of the deal in his post late Wednesday night. On Thursday, a senior British official confirmed that a deal with the United States had been reached.

The British official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, did not offer details, beyond saying that the deal would be good for both Britain and the United States.

The agreement would be the first deal announced since Mr. Trump imposed stiff tariffs on dozens of America’s trading partners. He later paused those temporarily in order to allow other nations to reach agreements with the United States.

Details of the agreement were not immediately clear. Both nations have discussed lowering British tariffs on U.S. cars and farm goods, as well as removing British taxes on U.S. technology companies. It also was not clear whether the agreement had actually been finalized.

Timothy C. Brightbill, an international trade attorney at Wiley Rein, said the announcement would probably be “just an agreement to start the negotiations, identifying a framework of issues to be discussed in the coming months.”

“We suspect that tariff rates, nontariff barriers and digital trade are all on the list — and there are difficult issues to address on all of these,” he added.

The Trump administration has been trying to cajole other countries into reaching quick trade deals with the United States. The president imposed punishing tariffs on dozens of its trading partners on April 2, but quickly backtracked after panic ensued in the bond market. Mr. Trump paused most of those tariffs for 90 days so that the United States could negotiate trade deals with other nations.

But he has left a 10 percent global tariff in place, including on Britain. Unlike other countries, Britain was not subjected to higher “reciprocal” tariffs, because it buys more from the United States than it sells to it.

Britain is also subject to a 25 percent tariff that Mr. Trump has placed on foreign steel, aluminum and automobiles, levies that British officials have been pushing their U.S. counterparts to lift.

Mr. Trump’s interest in striking a trade deal with Britain dates back to his first term, when his advisers negotiated with the country but didn’t finalize an agreement. British officials have also been eyeing a trade agreement with the United States since Brexit, as a way to offset weaker relations with Europe. In the Biden administration, British officials continued to push for a deal with the United States but made little progress.

For Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, the trade deal would offer vindication for his assiduous cultivation of Mr. Trump. During his visit to the Oval Office in February, Mr. Starmer turned up with an invitation from King Charles III for the president to make a rare second state visit to Britain.

The Trump administration appears to be nearing deals with India and Israel, and is continuing to negotiate with South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and other nations. Still, Mr. Trump once again displayed his unpredictable approach to economic policy on Tuesday when he downplayed the prospect of trade deals, saying other countries needed such agreements more than the United States.

“Everyone says ‘When, when, when are you going to sign deals?’” Mr. Trump said, at one point motioning toward Howard Lutnick, his commerce secretary. “We don’t have to sign deals. We could sign 25 deals right now, Howard, if we wanted to. We don’t have to sign deals. They have to sign deals with us.”

Trade experts have said that Mr. Trump may be intending to announce far more limited deals than traditional trade agreements, which cover most trade between countries and require congressional approval. Historically, free-trade agreements have taken the United States more than a year to negotiate.

In his first term, Mr. Trump renegotiated several U.S. trade agreements, including a free-trade agreement with South Korea and NAFTA. But he also signed a series of more limited “mini-deals” with countries in which they reduced tariffs on a few kinds of goods or agreed to talk about a few sectors.

British officials have also been negotiating with the European Union, and on Tuesday agreed to a trade deal with India. The India deal would lower tariffs between the countries and secure more access for British firms to India’s insurance and banking sectors, among other changes. The announcement followed nearly three years of negotiations.

Mark Landler contributed reporting.

Here’s what happened on Wednesday.

• After weeks of confusion about his plans for autism research, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, said that his department would build a “real-world platform” that would allow researchers to hunt for causes of the disorder by examining insurance claims, electronic medical records and wearable devices like smart watches.

• A federal judge cast doubt on the Trump administration’s reasons for not pursuing the return of Venezuelan immigrants who had been expelled to El Salvador in March, saying he was inclined to order officials to provide more details on the government’s role and responsibilities in the men’s deportation and incarceration.

• The rival governments that control Libya said they had not agreed to receive migrants deported from the United States, after American officials said the Trump administration was planning to begin sending deportees to the North African nation this week.

• Several members of the “Les Misérables” cast are intending to boycott their performance at a gala fund-raiser for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on June 11 because Mr. Trump plans to attend, according a person familiar with the situation who was granted anonymity because the discussions were considered confidential.

• Mr. Trump said he would not lower high tariffs on goods from China ahead of talks this weekend between U.S. and Chinese officials, despite requests from Beijing to do so.

• In his first broadcast interview since leaving the White House, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. attacked Mr. Trump’s management of the war in Ukraine and his dealings with global allies. Speaking to the BBC, Mr. Biden also defended the timing of his own withdrawal from the 2024 presidential campaign.

• Speaker Mike Johnson said Republicans were backing away from an aggressive plan to cut Medicaid costs as they sought politically palatable ways to fund Mr. Trump’s agenda.

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The National Archives releases more Robert F. Kennedy files.

“After the initial release of 10,000 documents three weeks ago, we searched F.B.I. and C.I.A. warehouses for any records not previously turned over to The National Archives,” Ms. Gabbard wrote on social media. “More than 60,000 documents were discovered, declassified, and digitized for public viewing. Today’s release is an important step toward maximum transparency, finding the truth, and sharing the truth.”

Ms. Gabbard’s office said the new batch of documents included transcripts of police interviews with Sirhan Sirhan, who was convicted of killing Mr. Kennedy. Many of the documents had previously been released.

The first tranche of documents included letters from many members of the public advancing various conspiracy theories. Some were heartfelt condolences from world leaders. Others raised questions about the circumstances of the assassination.

Some were concerned about the rights of Mr. Sirhan, others the circumstances of his background as a Palestinian. And one person had, with no evidence, a theory that Robert Kennedy actually died at Chappaquiddick.

Ms. Gabbard’s office said the new documents included documents with “rumors circulating on foreign soil that Senator Kennedy had been shot one month prior to his true assassination date.”

It will take scholars weeks, if not months, to go through the pages, but expectations are low that anything useful will be found.

“We have always known who assassinated R.F.K., because he was shot in front of a lot of people,” Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National Security Archive, an independent research center at George Washington University, said in an interview after the first tranche was released. “So this collection can’t be expected to change that history.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of health and human services and Senator Kennedy’s son, has pushed for the releases. Mr. Kennedy has pushed alternative theories and has said that he does not believe Mr. Sirhan killed his father.

Mr. Sirhan pleaded guilty to killing the senator while he was campaigning for president, though he said he had no memory of shooting him. He said he wanted to kill Mr. Kennedy because of his support for Israel.

Who is Dr. Casey Means?

What is her field of medicine?

Dr. Means, who trained as an otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon, left surgery behind without finishing her training to practice so-called functional medicine, which focuses on addressing the root causes of disease. She published a diet and self-help book last year titled “Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health.” Before that, she had been best known for founding Levels, a company that offers subscribers wearable glucose monitors to track their health.

She has focused on the prevalence of chronic diseases in the United States and has taken aim at obesity, diabetes and infertility, problems she has attributed to the use of chemicals and medications and Americans’ sedentary lifestyles.

What has she said about vaccines?

Dr. Means has echoed some of Mr. Kennedy’s skepticism of vaccines, calling on the new administration to study their “cumulative effects” and to weaken liability protections offered to vaccine makers as a way of encouraging them to develop new shots.

“There is growing evidence that the total burden of the current extreme and growing vaccine schedule is causing health declines in vulnerable children,” she wrote in an October newsletter.

Child health experts are adamantly opposed to trimming the list of recommended immunizations, warning that such changes would trigger outbreaks of deadly infectious diseases. And they have noted that the government makes available the safety data used to license vaccines and the safety data generated after they are put into use.

What has she said about the food supply?

Dr. Means has also pushed for a concerted campaign to pare back corporate-friendly policies related to the production and sale of food and medicine. For example, she has supported serving more nutritious meals in public schools, investigating the use of chemicals in American food, putting warning labels on ultra-processed foods, forbidding pharmaceutical companies from advertising directly to patients on television and reducing the influence of industry among drug and food regulators.

“American health is getting destroyed,” she said at a Senate round table event on food and nutrition in September. “If the current trends continue, if the graphs continue in the way that they’re going, at best we’re going to face profound societal instability and decreased American competitiveness, and at worst, we’re going to be looking at a genocidal-level health collapse.”

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Voice of America will receive feeds from a pro-Trump network, administration says.

Ms. Lake, who in recent years mounted unsuccessful campaigns for governor and senator in Arizona, said OAN had offered to provide free news reports to Voice of America and another American-supported outlet, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. In a statement on social media, she called the arrangement “an enormous benefit to the American taxpayer.”

“I don’t have editorial control over the content of VOA and OCB programming, but I can ensure our outlets have reliable and credible options as they work to craft their reporting and news programs,” said Ms. Lake, using acronyms for Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting.

Patsy Widakuswara, a former Voice of America White House bureau chief who was placed on leave, said she was concerned by the development.

“We’ve worked so hard to build trust for our brand,” she said. “This is 83 years of good journalism that’s going to be destroyed.”

Voice of America was created in 1942 to combat Nazi propaganda, and has long brought news to corners of the globe where reliable journalism is scarce.

In March, Mr. Trump issued an executive order to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the congressionally chartered agency that oversees Voice of America, effectively shuttering the news outlet. The president accused the broadcaster of harboring bias against him and branded it the “voice of radical America.” Voice of America’s roughly 1,300 workers were sent home.

The broadcaster’s journalists then sued, saying that Mr. Trump was not authorized to withdraw funding that had been approved by Congress.

A federal judge in Washington sided with the reporters, ordering the Trump administration to bring back programming.

An appeals panel seemed to complicate the matter over the weekend, reversing parts of the lower court’s order that required the Trump administration to restore funding. But the panel left the requirement that Voice of America revive programming.

It is not clear how many Voice of America reporters will return after the court decisions.

“Some have already returned,” Ms. Lake said in an email Tuesday evening. “Some will be returning in the future.”

She declined to comment further.

About 15 employees have been reinstated in recent days, said Ms. Widakuswara, who was not one of them.

Grant Turner, who served as chief executive of Voice of America’s parent agency during the first Trump administration, said that moves to add OAN content would violate a statutory requirement that the broadcaster be “accurate, objective, and comprehensive.”

He predicted that the OAN content would not land well with foreign audiences, either.

“They know what real fake news sounds like,” Mr. Turner said of Voice of America’s listeners, adding, “They want something that’s genuine.”

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Some ‘Les Misérables’ cast members plan to skip Trump’s Kennedy Center gala.

Several members of the “Les Misérables” cast are planning to boycott the performance, according to a person familiar with the situation who was granted anonymity because the discussions were considered confidential. The cast was given the option not to perform as word spread that Mr. Trump planned to attend, the person said. The boycott was reported earlier by CNN.

Richard Grenell, whom Mr. Trump appointed as president of the Kennedy Center, said the center had not heard of any boycott.

“Any performer who isn’t professional enough to perform for patrons of all backgrounds, regardless of political affiliation, won’t be welcomed,” he said in a statement. “In fact, we think it would be important to out those vapid and intolerant artists to ensure producers know who they shouldn’t hire — and that the public knows which shows have political litmus tests to sit in the audience.”

He added: “The Kennedy Center wants to be a place where people of all political stripes sit next to each other and never ask who someone voted for but instead enjoys a performance together.”

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Bond Theatrical, the agency overseeing the “Les Misérables” tour, issued a brief statement which did not address the question of performers opting out of the gala but said that the show would be performed “throughout our engagement at the Kennedy Center.”

Mr. Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center, and his decision to purge its previously bipartisan board of Biden appointees, have prompted an outcry among many artists. Several prominent figures, including the actress Issa Rae and the musician Rhiannon Giddens, have canceled engagements at the center in protest. The musical “Hamilton” scrapped a planned tour there next year.

Mr. Trump is expected to take part in a fund-raiser before the performance of “Les Misérables” on June 11. An invitation offered a gold sponsorship level for $2 million, and a silver sponsorship for $100,000; both come with photo opportunities with Mr. Trump. “Les Misérables” is set to run at the Kennedy Center through mid-July.

Mr. Trump is a fan of Broadway musicals of the 1980s, including “Les Misérables,” “Cats” and “Phantom of the Opera.”

When the president visited the center in March, he opened a board meeting with a question: Which musical is best, “Phantom of the Opera” or “Les Misérables”?

Mr. Trump, who as a young man dreamed of becoming a theater producer, told the board that he had been informed that Broadway shows sell the best at the Kennedy Center, and pledged to present many of them, according to a recording of the board meeting that was obtained by The New York Times. And he praised musical theater performers.

“When you go to watch ‘Les Miz,’ when you go to watch ‘Phantom of the Opera,’ you know how great some of the talent is,” he said. “I’ve always said, no pop star has a voice like what you’re just hearing. I’ve always said they are, to me, the greatest talents. And that’s all they want to do. They don’t want to make movies. They don’t want to do anything. They just want to do eight shows a week, with a Wednesday matinee, right? And they’re tremendously talented people.”

While Mr. Trump’s vision for the Kennedy Center is still taking shape, he appears eager to fix up the building, which opened in 1971. A House committee approved a budget proposal last week that called for allocating $257 million to the Kennedy Center for capital repairs and other expenses, roughly six times the amount it usually receives from the government. The funding was requested by Mr. Trump, according to a statement by the committee.

Kennedy announces a new database for research into ‘root causes’ of autism.

But it was unclear whether the announcement would assuage researchers, advocates and parents, who reacted with alarm last month when Mr. Kennedy and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health, floated — and then walked back — the idea of an autism registry for research. Many feared privacy violations.

In Illinois on Wednesday, Governor JB Pritzker, a Democrat, issued an executive order aimed at protecting the privacy rights of state residents with autism. His office said he made the move in response to “rising national concerns about efforts to create federal autism registries or databases without clear legal safeguards or accountability.”

Mr. Kennedy’s intense focus on autism stems from his insistence, despite evidence otherwise, that vaccines are to blame for the rapid rise in autism diagnoses in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that about 1 in 31, or 3.2 percent, of American eight-year-olds have received a diagnosis.

For the new database, the health department said it would take steps to ensure the privacy of medical data. But it is not clear precisely what kind of research will be conducted. Mr. Kennedy said in the announcement that his department would use the platform “to uncover the root causes of autism and other chronic diseases.”

Some experts were skeptical.

“It’s the registry without the word ‘registry’ in it,” said David Mandell, a professor of psychiatry and longtime autism researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. He said that some of his research had relied on Medicaid data, which had been difficult to access, and that on one level he welcomed the announcement.

But he also expressed concern that the data would be “misused or misappropriated,” or steered toward vaccine studies.

“We are creating a tool, and tools can be used for good and for evil,” Dr. Mandell said. “I know a lot of researchers — and I like to think of myself as one — who have used this kind of tool for good. And I’m really concerned that that’s not what happens.”

In outlining the government’s research priorities, the announcement appeared contradictory. While Mr. Kennedy focused on root causes, the health department said that studies would focus on autism diagnosis trends; the effectiveness of medical and behavioral treatments; the economic burden on families and health care systems; and access to care and “disparities by demographics and geography.”

Given the Trump administration’s assault on “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives, the last priority might appear surprising. But some of Dr. Bhattacharya’s previous research, from his tenure as a medical economist at Stanford University, focused on health care disparities, and he recently told reporters that he believed it was appropriate to examine how diseases affect different populations.

“Concern for the health of minority populations is not the same thing as D.E.I.,” Dr. Bhattacharya said in an interview after Mr. Kennedy announced he was taking action against petroleum-based food dyes.

Jill Escher, the president of the National Council on Severe Autism and a parent of two adult children with autism, said that she is of two minds about Mr. Kennedy’s announcement. On the one hand, she said, she agreed “one hundred percent with the administration that it is incredibly urgent to find more answers about autism.”

But she said that she was concerned Mr. Kennedy’s approach was “a lot of dart throwing without hypothesis building.” Given that scientists have been studying autism for at least three decades, she said, she preferred a more systematic approach in which the Department of Health and Human Services identified the most pressing questions and developed a research agenda to answer them.

The disorder takes many forms, but is usually marked by a blend of social and communication problems and repetitive behaviors. Some people with severe autism are nonverbal and have intellectual disabilities; others on the autism spectrum simply struggle with social cues. Many researchers believe that a complicated array of factors, including genetics and possibly fetal exposures in utero, are responsible for autism.

In bringing the issue to the fore, Mr. Kennedy has delighted some in the autism community. But many were infuriated by his remarks at a news conference last month, when he asserted that the disorder is preventable (experts say there is no evidence of this), and insisted that autism “destroys” families.

Critics said he only added to the stigma around the disorder.

In his announcement on Wednesday, Mr. Kennedy said that the platform would begin as a “pilot research program” aimed at autism, but would eventually be available to researchers studying other chronic conditions.

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Trump withdraws his surgeon general nomination and announces a new choice.

Dr. Means, a wellness influencer who earned a medical degree from Stanford and frequently casts doubt on the American medical system, is the co-author of “Good Energy,” a book about chronic illness. The book, which she wrote with her brother, argues that metabolic dysfunction is at the root of a chronic disease epidemic. Dr. Means has pointed to rising rates of infertility, obesity, diabetes, depression and other conditions as signs that the United States is undergoing a health crisis, and pointed at environmental factors and the food system as possible culprits.

Her brother, Calley Means, is a top adviser to Mr. Kennedy, and the siblings have been prominent supporters of Mr. Kennedy’s policy efforts. They became especially popular among conservatives after they appeared on Tucker Carlson’s podcast last August, and Mr. Trump and Joe Rogan discussed them in October on Mr. Rogan’s podcast.

When Mr. Kennedy was sworn in as the new health secretary, Dr. Means wrote on X that he “has a vision for the future that aligns with what I want for my family, future children, and the world.”

Dr. Means’s website says she earned her bachelor’s and medical degrees from Stanford University before dropping out of her residency program in surgery. She is the co-founder of Levels, a digital health company that uses continuous glucose monitoring to help track metabolic health.

Mr. Trump said Dr. Nesheiwat, a former Fox News contributor, would work with Mr. Kennedy “in another capacity” at the health and human services department.

Dr. Nesheiwat was scheduled to appear before the Senate health committee on Thursday, but her nomination ran into trouble on two fronts. Laura Loomer, a conservative activist whom Mr. Trump has listened to on other personnel matters, called for a new surgeon general nominee, arguing Dr. Nesheiwat “is not ideologically aligned” with the president. Reports have also raised questions about the veracity of Dr. Nesheiwat’s résumé.

She is the sister-in-law of Michael Waltz, who served as Mr. Trump’s national security adviser until last week. The president said he would nominate Mr. Waltz to be the ambassador to the United Nations.

Dani Blum contributed reporting from New York.

Trump says U.S. won’t drop tariffs ahead of China talks.

He also implied that the Chinese had been the ones to request trade talks, contradicting statements by China that the two sides were meeting at the request of the Americans. “I think they ought to go back and study their files,” the president said.

Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, and Jamieson Greer, the United States trade representative, plan to meet with Chinese officials on Saturday and Sunday in Geneva to discuss trade and economic matters. The countries have been locked in a standoff. High tariffs have been hurting businesses in both countries, but neither government has wanted to look like it is conceding to the other by requesting a meeting.

Chinese officials say they have little clarity from the U.S. side about which policy changes could mollify Mr. Trump, and it is unclear whether the two countries will strike any kind of trade deal.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump said China would need to “stop fentanyl from coming in,” and he blamed former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for not upholding an agreement that Mr. Trump signed with China during his first term.

Mr. Trump spoke from the Oval Office as he swore in David Perdue, the new ambassador to China. A former senator from Georgia, Mr. Perdue is also a former chief executive of Reebok and Dollar General, and the business community has viewed him as someone who could be a moderating force on the U.S.-China relationship.

“I picked him a long time ago but it just happened to come due on a pretty important date,” the president said.

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Where is Melania?

Melania Trump vanishes from view for weeks at a time, holing up in Trump Tower in Manhattan or in Florida, where she can lie low at Mar-a-Lago. Administration officials say she is at the White House more often than the public knows, but when exactly, and for how long, these officials will not (or perhaps cannot) say for certain.

It’s like having Greta Garbo as first lady.

Mrs. Trump is expected to reappear in the capital on Thursday to unveil a postage stamp honoring Barbara Bush, the former first lady, and to attend a ceremony for military mothers. But two people with knowledge of Mrs. Trump’s schedule said she had spent fewer than 14 days at the White House since her husband was inaugurated 108 days ago. Others say even that is a generous estimate. Officials in the East Wing and West Wing declined multiple requests for comment for this article.

That the first lady’s whereabouts is among the most sensitive of subjects in this White House only adds to the intrigue.

“We haven’t seen such a low-profile first lady since Bess Truman, and that’s going way back in living human memory, nearly 80 years ago,” said Katherine Jellison, a historian at Ohio University whose research has focused on first ladies. She said that, like Mrs. Trump, Mrs. Truman spent much of her time running back to “her home base whenever she had the chance.” (In Mrs. Truman’s case, that was Independence, Mo.)

“She just kind of liked her own private world,” Ms. Jellison said.

The same is true of this first lady. She has hired staff to work for her in the East Wing, but she rarely goes into the office. Even regulars at Mar-a-Lago say they don’t often see Mrs. Trump around the premises.

Every marriage has its highs and lows, but as with so many other things, the Trumps are in a league of their own. In the span of just a few months last year, the couple endured a public trial about his philandering, two assassination attempts and a presidential campaign.

The trial, which concerned hush money Donald J. Trump paid to a porn star, made for an especially challenging moment for the couple, two people with knowledge of their dynamic said. Mrs. Trump kept well away from the courthouse in Lower Manhattan and from the campaign that kicked into high gear in the weeks that followed.

The attempted assassination of her husband over the summer — and a subsequent incident in which a gunman got close to Mr. Trump on one of his golf courses — deeply spooked a woman who was already worried about her family’s safety and had been for years, according to two people familiar with her thinking. The first time President Trump was inaugurated, in 2017, she was concerned about even getting out of the car to walk in the parade.

At the White House this time around, Mr. Trump has taken to performing some duties that typically would fall to a first lady. She’s not the one carefully selecting light fixtures for the White House residence, redesigning the Rose Garden, greeting tour groups in the East Wing or hosting receptions for Women’s History Month. He is.

It has been a decade since husband and wife rode that golden escalator down into national political life together. Now, he has come to a moment in which he finds himself flush with power and self-confidence like never before. And yet, as he expands, she shrinks.

Mr. and Mrs. Trump do share one common approach to public office, though. They both know how to make money from the exposure. In January, Mrs. Trump launched her own cryptocurrency token. “You can buy $MELANIA now,” she wrote on social media the day before her husband’s second inauguration.

And then there is the deal she struck with Amazon, reported to have been about $40 million, for a documentary offering a “behind the scenes” look at her life as first lady.

What might that show? It’s hard to say, exactly.

‘You serve the country’

Mrs. Trump waited for months to move into the White House last time. But that was because her son was just 10, and his mother took the time she needed to arrange his schooling and the transition to a new city. Back then, Mrs. Trump’s parents were omnipresent at the White House as she learned to navigate the role. Mrs. Trump’s mother, Amalija Knavs, died in January 2024. These days, Mrs. Trump spends a lot of time with her father, Viktor.

Barron Trump is 19 now. He is finishing his freshman year at New York University and is increasingly independent. Still, there is a part of Mrs. Trump that remains attached to the protective maternal role she has in his life, people around her say.

“You know, I feel that as children, we have them until they are like 18, 19 years old,” Mrs. Trump told Fox News in a rare interview she gave in January before the inauguration. “We teach them. We guide them. And then we give them the wings to fly.”

She was asked where she planned to spend most of her time this term.

“I will be in the White House,” she answered. “And, you know, when I need to be in New York, I will be in New York. 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. And once we are in on Jan. 20, you serve the country.”

Because Mrs. Trump is seldom seen or heard from, the times when she does appear provide a glimpse of how she sees her role. Some of her choices have been in line with traditional first lady duties — up to a point.

She stood alongside her husband to preside over the White House Easter Egg Roll last month, but even that raised ethical and legal concerns after it was revealed that corporate sponsors were allowed to contribute. (All money raised was to go to the White House Historical Association, a private nonprofit educational organization founded by Jacqueline Kennedy in 1961.)

On April 1, she spoke at the State Department for the International Women of Courage awards, the first time she had been seen in public in Washington in weeks.

At the White House, the first lady has hired her own staff in the East Wing. But what to do when the boss doesn’t come into the office? “We were honored to welcome these curious, young gardeners to the White House this past week!” reads the caption of one recent video posted to the “FLOTUS” Instagram page.

But FLOTUS herself does not appear in the video. It’s not clear if she was even there.

Film crews have been spotted around Mrs. Trump lately. But for the most part, the Amazon documentary about her life is, like its subject, shrouded in mystery. Documentary filmmakers and Hollywood executives say that the $40 million that Amazon is reported to have paid for the documentary, which Mrs. Trump is executive producing, is tens of millions of dollars more than what such projects would ordinarily fetch. Amazon declined multiple requests for comment for this article, as did the film’s director, Brett Ratner.

Just as Mrs. Trump’s presence can make for an interesting sight, so too can her absence.

When the first tour group was led through the East Wing, it was Mr. Trump who popped up to surprise them. “The first lady worked very hard in making it perfect,” he told the group. But she was not there.

During the first Trump term, Mrs. Trump replanted and restored the Rose Garden. This term, the president plans to pave over it to turn it into a patio so he can entertain al fresco. Mrs. Trump was initially bothered by her husband’s plan, according to two people briefed on the matter. She has since been assured the rose bushes themselves will be left alone.

She also came around to the idea of the ballroom that he is adamant about building at the White House — once she was told the construction wouldn’t take place too close to the residence.

One person who has known Mrs. Trump for a long time is Paolo Zampolli, a former modeling agent from Italy who first spotted her in Milan in the 1990s. The Trumps say it was Mr. Zampolli who introduced them for the first time, in 1998, at the Kit Kat Club in Manhattan. He refers to Mrs. Trump reverently as “the lady.” Any persnickety questions about the lady’s absence in Washington, he said, were unfounded. “She loves the White House,” he insisted, “and she loves the role of serving as our first lady.”

When the president makes his big swing through the Middle East next week, to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the first lady is not expected to go with him.

But she did accompany him to Vatican City for Pope Francis’ funeral.

When they landed back in Newark on a Saturday afternoon, it was Mrs. Trump’s 55th birthday. The president gave her a kiss on the cheek. She got into a car, he climbed into Marine One, and they went their separate ways.

Audio produced by Adrienne Hurst.

Vance says he wants World Cup visitors to enjoy their brief stay.

“Everyone is welcome to come and see this incredible event,” Vice President JD Vance said. “But when the time is up, they’ll have to go home. Otherwise, they’ll have to talk to Secretary Noem,” he added, referring to Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, another member of the panel.

Ms. Noem, speaking next, did not pick up Mr. Vance’s refrain. But Sean Duffy, the Transportation Secretary, soon echoed his sentiments.

“Go on a road trip. See America,” he said to potential visitors. But in the next breath, he added: “Don’t overstay your visa. Don’t stay too long.”

The blunt warnings to tourists not to overstay their visas is in keeping with the Trump administration’s approach to foreigners over the last few months, which has included not only deporting immigrants illegally present in the United States, but also efforts to expel or turn away some authorized to be in the country.

The aggressive posture has prompted many countries to issue travel advisories, warning their citizens to be wary when traveling to the United States.

It is not clear whether the Trump administration’s approach to foreign visitors will affect the tourism boom a World Cup typically brings.

The World Cup, a quadrennial event in which national soccer teams from across the globe compete for large cash prizes, a gold trophy and international bragging rights, draws in millions of spectators. In 2022, when Qatar hosted the competition, 3.4 million people attended the games, according to FIFA, with more than a million of those traveling from abroad.

Nearly a dozen U.S. cities and metropolitan areas stand to benefit from the influx of visitors by hosting games next year: Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area. The World Cup final will take place in MetLife Stadium, home to New York’s two N.F.L. teams, the Giants and the Jets.

Canada will host games in Toronto and Vancouver, while Mexico will host games in Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey.

Mr. Trump indicated during the task force’s meeting on Tuesday that he was keenly aware of the World Cup’s economic potential, noting that “these events, if done properly, make a tremendous amount of money and prestige.” He signaled that he would support congressional efforts to budget $625 million for enhanced security around the games, of which there will be more than in past competitions: The 2026 World Cup will include 48 teams, up from 32. Seventy-eight of the 104 games will be in the United States.

Mr. Trump himself did not offer any admonitions to would-be visitors, but had a stern warning when asked whether pro-Palestinian protesters might have difficulty attending.

“I think people are allowed to protest,” he said. “You have to do it in a reasonable manner — not necessarily friendly but reasonable — otherwise Pam will come after you and you’re going to have a big problem,” he added, referring to Pam Bondi, the attorney general. Ms. Bondi was present at the meeting, but did not address reporters.

The Trump administration has been trying to deport a number of foreign nationals, including at least one green card holder, who participated in pro-Palestinian activism on campus, as part of a crackdown that has inspired widespread debate about First Amendment rights. But displays of Palestinian solidarity are common at World Cup games.

In the 2022 World Cup, members of Morocco’s team held up Palestinian flags as they celebrated their victory over Spain. Fans unfurled giant banners featuring the Palestinian flag and the words “Free Palestine” during games between Tunisia and Australia and the Netherlands and Qatar. And pro-Palestinian chants were commonplace at many matches.

Ms. Noem said that her department had already started processing travel documents and visa applications for a new FIFA-sponsored competition of club teams, which will be played in the United States this summer. She said that event would be a precursor for the 2026 World Cup, and that the administration would put “all hands on deck to make sure this goes smoothly.”

Mr. Trump has entrusted stewardship of the 2026 World Cup to Andrew Giuliani, the son of Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City who previously served as a lawyer for Mr. Trump. The president named the younger Giuliani the task force’s executive director on Tuesday.

Andrew Giuliani was a special assistant and an assistant director of the White House’s Office of Public Liaison during Mr. Trump’s first term. His history as a professional golfer has earned him accolades from Mr. Trump.