WASHINGTON — Americans are usually eager to see what the first lady will be wearing to the president’s State of the Union address, how she will greet attendees and which guests she has invited to sit near her to watch the speech.

Rarely is there a question about whether she will show up at all.

In the end — spoiler alert — Melania Trump attended President Trump’s first such address on Tuesday night. She entered to a loud round of applause. Fresh from Palm Beach, she sported a tan. She flashed a wide smile.

And, for the record, she wore Dior.

It was a high-profile resurfacing for a notoriously private first lady who in recent weeks has stayed largely out of sight. Her recent absence from public life was said to have been caused, in part, by anger over reports that the porn star Stormy Daniels was paid $130,000 just before the 2016 election to keep quiet about an affair she had had a decade earlier with Mr. Trump.