Reuters

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Reuters

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Melania Trump stepped out Saturday in her first solo event as First Lady, taking the wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan on a visit to a Japanese garden in Delray Beach, Fla.

Trump, in an ankle-length white dress, posed with Akie Abe on a footbridge overlooking a pond, then walked with a crowd of aides and interpreters to a rock garden in the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens complex.

Abe, a veteran of state visits hosted by Michelle Obama and Laura Bush, smiled and waved to Japanese media members.

Trump, who did not acknowledge the press, looked straight ahead as the two proceeded.

But she appeared noticeably more relaxed as the tour progressed. At the Yamato Island bonsai garden, she and Abe delightedly dropped food into the water to attract the attention of the koi fish that stock the pond.

“Oh my, look at those! Ooh!” Trump exclaimed as the fish swarmed.

She was scheduled to host a private lunch for Abe at Mar-a-Lago, then a formal delegation dinner there Saturday night – all out of the glare of Washington and the unfamiliar confines of the White House.

She was criticized on Friday when Akie Abe made several stops in D.C. without the traditional presence of the First Lady as a tour guide.

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