Trump reassures everyone that Melania 'truly loves' being first lady
President Trump tweeted on Tuesday morning that his wife, first lady Melania Trump, "truly loves what she is doing," and claimed that she told him before the election, "if you run, you will win." Trump's tweet seems to be in response to a recently published Vanity Fair article which reported that Melania did not want to be first lady at all, nor did she believe that Trump could win the 2016 presidential election.
On Monday, the office of the first lady told CNN in a statement that the Vanity Fair story was "riddled with unnamed sources and false assertions" and insisted the first lady remains "honored by her role." While some of the story's more juicy quotes ("She didn't want this come hell or high water. I don't think she thought it was going to happen.") are indeed from anonymous sources, other quotes from named sources, including political strategist Roger Stone, paint a portrait of a wife who is supportive of her husband's goals, if reluctantly. "She said, 'It's not my thing. It's Donald's thing.' And I think she understood he was going to be unhappy if he didn't run," Stone reportedly told Vanity Fair.
Despite Trump's claim to have never doubted his ability to win the presidency, New York Times White House reporter Maggie Haberman notes that Trump reportedly considered dropping out of the election if his numbers fell too low.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.
-
Will California’s Proposition 50 kill gerrymandering reform?Talking Points Or is opposing Trump the greater priority for voters?
-
‘The trickle of shutdowns could soon become a flood’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Wikipedia: Is ‘neutrality’ still possible?Feature Wikipedia struggles to stay neutral as conservatives accuse the site of being left-leaning
-
Trump demands millions from his administrationSpeed Read The president has requested $230 million in compensation from the Justice Department for previous federal investigations
-
Trump nominee in limbo after racist texts leakSpeed Read Paul Ingrassia lost Republican support following the exposure of past racist text messages
-
Trump begins East Wing demolition for ballroomspeed read The president’s new construction will cost $250 million
-
Appeals court clears Trump’s Portland troop deploymentSpeed Read A divided federal appeals court ruled that President Trump can send the National Guard to Portland
-
Millions turn out for anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ ralliesSpeed Read An estimated 7 million people participated, 2 million more than at the first ‘No Kings’ protest in June
-
DOJ indicts John Bolton over classified filesSpeed Read Continuing the trend of going after his political enemies, Trump prosecutes his former national security adviser
-
Trump, Putin set summit as Zelenskyy lands in DCSpeed Read Trump and Putin have agreed to meet in Budapest soon to discuss ending the war in Ukraine
-
Courts deal setbacks to Trump’s Chicago operationsSpeed Read President Donald Trump cannot deploy the National Guard in Illinois
