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

John Boehner.
(Image credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

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."

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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."

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Bonnie Kristian

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.