President Donald Trump’s second wife, Marla Maples, attended the White House Christmas party on Sunday night for the first time.
Maples shared a video from outside the White House on her Instagram story, saying it was her first time at the annual celebration. Calling the evening “beautiful,” she also posted a photo with her daughter, Tiffany Trump, and Sarah Shatz, writing in the caption: “love these ladies.”
Although this marked Maples’ first appearance at a White House event, she has remained a visible presence around the Trump family in recent months. In September, she was at Mar-a-Lago for an event honoring the late TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, and she also spent Thanksgiving with the family.
Maples and Donald Trump met in the 1980s. Their daughter, Tiffany, was born in October 1993. Maples has said Trump proposed after the 1993 Long Island Railroad shooting, which left six people dead, and that the tragedy prompted him to reassess his life. They married in December 1993, two weeks after the proposal.
The couple later separated in May 1997 and finalized their divorce on June 8, 1999. In 2024, Maples told The Standard that she and Trump had spoken openly about the past and reached a place of mutual forgiveness.
“Anything from the past I’ve forgiven,” Maples said. “Marriages are challenging, especially when you play them out in the media.”
In recent months, Maples has also publicly supported Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” campaign. A longtime friend of Kennedy’s, she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) she appreciated his focus on environmental issues such as keeping rivers and water clean. After Trump was shot in July 2024, Kennedy asked Maples to help connect him with Trump.
“We can breathe clean air. We can have our kids running free through the grass, [they] learn how to eat right. They learn how to live with the joy. That’s what I want,” Maples told ABC. “We say make yourself healthy again.”
The Christmas gathering was hosted by Trump and first lady Melania Trump. During the party, the family also celebrated the engagement of Donald Trump Jr. In remarks to guests, Trump Jr. thanked his fiancée, Bettina Anderson, for accepting his proposal, calling it a “big win for the end of the year,” and joked that although he’s rarely short on words because he does “ranting and raving really well,” he wanted to speak from the heart.
Anderson thanked Trump for hosting and praised Melania Trump’s holiday decorations.
“This has really been the most unforgettable weekend of my life and I get to marry the love of my life and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world,” Anderson said.
