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Anyone seen a 56-year-old woman around lately? Tall, cinnamon blond hair, fond of a fancy hat and, to quote Vogue, occasionally dresses like a “freelance magician”. She goes by the name “Melania Trump” or “first lady”, and she appears to be missing again. According to an analysis by the Daily Beast, Melania has only made 38 public appearances this year – with the last being the World Cup final. She’s been MIA for about a month.

To be fair, this isn’t out of character. During her first stint in the White House, the first lady’s frequent absences sparked various conspiracy theories, including one that she had a body double. But it seems Melania is keeping an even lower profile during Trump 2.0. NBC reported on Monday that she’s done about half as many public events as she did at this point in Trump’s first term. A senior adviser told the outlet she “prioritises results over appearances”. I dunno about that. Her highest-profile public appearance this year was when she held a surprise press conference telling everyone not to speculate about her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. This had the predictable result of getting everyone to speculate about her relationship with the dead sex offender.

The first lady may be work-shy but she’s definitely not camera-shy. Melania starred in an eponymous documentary bankrolled by Amazon that hit theatres at the beginning of the year. Ted Hope, a former Amazon employee, told the New York Times that the $35m in promotion and $40m in rights meant it had to “be the most expensive documentary ever made that didn’t involve music licensing”. He added: “How can it not be equated with currying favor or an outright bribe?” Jeff Bezos would vehemently deny such nasty smears. He has said that, while he had nothing to do with the project, it was a “good business decision”.

Good business or not, the Melania movie was not well received – the Guardian’s reviewer gave it zero stars. Nevertheless, it seems that more scintillating first lady content is on its way. A companion docuseries to the movie is coming to Prime Video this autumn. Earlier this month, one of Melania’s advisers told the conservative media network Real America’s Voice that this series will “open a little deeper into her career, as well as her philanthropy”. If her money-making schemes are anything to go by, Melania’s theory of philanthropy seems to be that charity begins at home.

• Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

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