President Trump slams facelift, breakup rumors inspired by Melania's absence
Melania Trump is finally present and accounted for — according to footage from a White House event honoring Gold Star families, anyway — but President Trump isn’t taking speculation about her 25-day absence lightly.
Though Trump initially cracked what spectators called an “awkward” joke about rumors that his wife had left him, he took to — where else? — Twitter on Wednesday morning to slam the media for its “vicious” coverage of FLOTUS’s low profile over the past month. He also insisted that members of the press spotted her “walking merrily along to a meeting” but chose to not report the sighting.
The Fake News Media has been so unfair, and vicious, to my wife and our great First Lady, Melania. During her recovery from surgery they reported everything from near death, to facelift, to left the W.H. (and me) for N.Y. or Virginia, to abuse. All Fake, she is doing really well!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2018
…Four reporters spotted Melania in the White House last week walking merrily along to a meeting. They never reported the sighting because it would hurt the sick narrative that she was living in a different part of the world, was really ill, or whatever. Fake News is really bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2018
Before Tuesday, the first lady was last seen in public on May 10, when she joined her husband in welcoming three American detainees back to the U.S. after their release from North Korea. A few days later, the White House announced that she would be undergoing a kidney embolization procedure, which would require a brief hospital stay.
But Melania dropped off the radar for longer than expected, fueling speculation that she’d encountered a medical complication, was recovering from a top-secret cosmetic surgery procedure, or had fled the White House life completely. Despite her assurances, sent via a tweet that did little to quell the rumors, that there was no truth to the “conspiracy theories,” questions continued to be raised — especially after she skipped a Trump family gathering at Camp David last weekend.
CNN’s White House correspondent Kate Bennett responded to Trump’s Twitter rant by defending her coverage of the first lady.
I am to my knowledge the only reporter on the @FLOTUS beat full time from a major outlet, and I never reported she was near death or had a facelift, or anything in bewteeen it similar. ?♀? https://t.co/4yeX3qcFIF
— Kate Bennett (@KateBennett_DC) June 6, 2018
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, meanwhile, couldn’t resist ribbing Trump for his own “cruel” comments about Morning Joe co-host (and real-life fiancée) Mika Brzezinski. Last year Trump claimed to have rejected Brzezinski as a party guest because she was “bleeding badly from a facelift.”
I agree that it would be “vicious” and “unfair” to lie about a loved one having a facelift for the purpose of causing pain and embarrassment. Mr. President, can you imagine anyone would be so cruel to do such a thing? https://t.co/zfqjt1LKw2
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) June 6, 2018
I can’t even imagine. https://t.co/WrwlEc37OH
— Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) June 6, 2018
What matters now is that the first lady is back in action — although, as her spokeswoman recently confirmed, she won’t be attending this week’s G7 meeting or joining her husband for next week’s trip to Singapore.
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
Kathy Griffin is calling out Ivanka Trump for her Kate Spade tweet: ‘You’re all talk’
The president misspelled the first lady’s name in a tweet, and celebs had jokes
‘Melania’ is now one of the most popular baby names
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