John Boehner, armed with a cocktail, has a theory on why Melania Trump looks miserable


Former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has taken some unexpected turns since leaving office in 2015. As a member of Congress he declared himself "unalterably opposed to the legalization of marijuana," but now the famous tan and tearful Boehner is on the board of a cannabis investment firm.
He has also developed a new habit of candor, which was on display Thursday as Boehner, with a fruity cocktail on hand while speaking in Michigan, offered his theory on why Melania Trump often appears miserable.
"I think Donald Trump promised Melania that he would not win. She didn't have to worry about ever living in the White House," Boehner joked to a laughing audience. "It's probably why she doesn't look real happy every day. Well, maybe one reason."
Subscribe to 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.
Boehner may not be wrong: Trump confidante Roger Stone told Vanity Fair as much for a 2017 profile of Melania. "She said, '[The campaign is] not my thing. It's Donald's thing,'" Stone said. An unnamed Trump family friend similarly said the first lady "didn’t want [the presidency] come hell or high water. I don't think she thought it was going to happen."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
6 charming homes in Rhode Island
Feature Featuring an award-winning home on Block Island and a casket-making-company-turned-condo in Providence
-
Team Trump brings the MAGA playbook to Albania's elections
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION The architects of the president's 2024 victory are looking east to extend their populist reach
-
Narco subs are helping fuel a global cocaine surge
The Explainer Drug smugglers are increasingly relying on underwater travel to hide from law enforcement
-
Fed leaves rates unchanged as Powell warns on tariffs
speed read The Federal Reserve says the risks of higher inflation and unemployment are increasing under Trump's tariffs
-
Denmark to grill US envoy on Greenland spying report
speed read The Trump administration ramped up spying on Greenland, says reporting by The Wall Street Journal
-
Supreme Court allows transgender troop ban
speed read The US Supreme Court will let the Trump administration begin executing its ban on transgender military service members
-
Hollywood confounded by Trump's film tariff idea
speed read President Trump proposed a '100% tariff' on movies 'produced in foreign lands'
-
Trump offers migrants $1,000 to 'self-deport'
speed read The Department of Homeland Security says undocumented immigrants can leave the US in a more 'dignified way'
-
Trump is not sure he must follow the Constitution
speed read When asked about due process for migrants in a TV interview, President Trump said he didn't know whether he had to uphold the Fifth Amendment
-
Trump judge bars deportations under 1798 law
speed read A Trump appointee has ruled that the president's use of a wartime act for deportations is illegal
-
Trump ousts Waltz as NSA, taps him for UN role
speed read President Donald Trump removed Mike Waltz as national security adviser and nominated him as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations