The holiday season is a challenging time for managing children’s expectations – but one’s heart goes out to the bunch of young patients who dutifully turned out in their Sunday best at Washington DC‘s Children’s Hospital this month for the First Lady’s annual reading of a Christmas story.
It was quite some feat of endurance for them to sit quietly and patiently – although their eyes occasionally shifted longingly towards Santa and Mrs Claus sitting across the room – as Melania Trump slugged her way through Mac Barnett’s How Does Santa Go Down The Chimney with all the seasonal cheer of a flight attendant reciting the passenger safety instructions.
Poking fun at Melania’s annual festive activities has become a cherished tradition on social media and this year, as ever, cynics could pull her up on her pronunciation – she talked about the ‘chiminee’, for example – or her rather baffling decision not to show the children the colorful illustrations in what was clearly a picture book.
‘I don’t mind her accent,’ said a commenter on X. ‘But she doesn’t know how to read a book to children.’
It may be some comfort that the cruel mockery of her heavy accent wasn’t as bad as a previous year, when scoffers delighted in sharing the moment when, asked by a child what she wanted from Santa for Christmas, she seemed to reply, ‘piss on the world’, although, of course, she was saying ‘peace’.
The ridicule also takes in one of every First Lady’s most heavily scrutinized duties – decorating the White House for the holiday season.
It’s always the perfect opportunity for the sitting president’s political enemies to score cheap points – and Mrs Trump has certainly soaked up more than her fair share of decoration criticism.
So many might forgive ‘Grinch Melania’ – as some media outlets have dubbed her – if she really did loathe Christmas with a passion.
Melania Trump has certainly soaked up more than her fair share of decoration criticism. So many might forgive ‘Grinch Melania’ if she really did loathe Christmas with a passion.
After all, the former model was born and raised in communist Slovenia where public Christmas celebrations were suppressed as ideologically harmful. State officials tried to promote secular alternatives like ‘Dedek Mraz’, or Grandfather Frost.
And, in fact, she was secretly recorded in the summer of 2018 sounding very much like she couldn’t bear to hear the C word.
‘I’m working… my a** off on the Christmas stuff,’ she could be heard complaining to Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former friend and adviser who later wrote an unflattering book about their relationship. Melania went on: ‘Who gives a f*** about the Christmas stuff and decorations? But I need to do it, right?’
What made it worse, the First Lady added, was that she was getting it in the neck about concentrating on Christmas instead of worrying about the migrant families that her husband was separating at the Mexican border. ‘Give me a f***ing break,’ she wailed.
Only a few months later, in November 2018, she was eviscerated for lining the White House’s East Colonnade with a forest of blood-red trees made from thousands of cranberries.
Some critics said it reminded them of horror movie The Shining or the dystopian TV series The Handmaid’s Tale.
Others couldn’t decide whether it was more or less disturbing than the First Lady’s Christmas decorations the previous year, which featured lines of stark and spindly – and dead – white trees.
Melania – who is, it must be said, one of the few First Ladies with a background in design or fashion – came out swinging when she defended the red trees.
‘We are in the 21st century and everybody has a different taste,’ she said. ‘I think they look fantastic.’
In November 2018, Melania was eviscerated for lining the White House’s East Colonnade with a forest of blood-red trees made from thousands of cranberries.
Some critics couldn’t decide whether it was more or less disturbing than the First Lady’s Christmas decorations the previous year, which featured lines of stark and spindly – and dead – white trees.
Given the scale of the abuse she’s drawn over her seasonal decor choices, however, it’s somewhat ironic that she now sells her own line of Christmas ornaments and holiday decorations, including a limited edition $90 ‘American Star’.
Melania was back in the firing line over her seasonal spirit – or lack of – three weeks ago when she was seen leaving the traditional arrival ceremony for the White House Christmas tree after just two minutes and 50 seconds (yes, critics timed it).
Responsible for ‘welcoming’ the tree at the North Portico – and doing so without her husband at her side – she briefly greeted the carriage bearing the huge fir, exchanged a few words with its driver, called the tree ‘beautiful’ and posed for a few quick photo ops before retreating indoors.
Footage of the brief appearance – like so many of Mrs Trump’s supposed Christmas bloopers – swiftly went viral online.
But, in her defense, what can you say about a big tree sitting on top of a carriage and not even decorated?
Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary and chief of staff to Melania as First Lady, told the Daily Mail that she doesn’t believe her ex-boss hates Christmas or even resents her festive duties as First Lady.
‘She loves the holiday and she loves the events that have to do with children,’ she said. ‘She puts a lot of time and attention to detail into the decorations and what not. So, she’s definitely not a Grinch.’
But, Grisham went on: ‘Does she like the constant criticism? Absolutely not, but who would like that. And it’s unfortunate that this is what people choose to focus on rather than the holiday spirit and the kids she’s helping, and that kind of thing.’
A close friend of the President and First Lady told the Daily Mail: ‘Melania doesn’t have to do this. She doesn’t have to stand for hours – in four-inch heels – smiling and greeting at Christmas events. She doesn’t have to be First Lady. But she does it – and with no complaint.’
The friend also said the infamous leaked call in which Melania swore about the Christmas decorations ‘showed her to be human – yes, she had a bad day’.
However, the friend added: ‘But isn’t it also kinda bad ass? She has a potty mouth and takes no prisoners. If you look at social media, people respect the call – it shows she doesn’t lie down and take any crap.’
A close friend of the President and First Lady told the Daily Mail: ‘Melania doesn’t have to do this. She doesn’t have to stand for hours – in four-inch heels – smiling and greeting at Christmas events. But she does it, and with no complaint.’
The friend also said the infamous leaked call in which Melania swore about the Christmas decorations ‘showed her to be human – yes, she had a bad day’.
White House experts observe that pretty much every First Lady gets hauled over the coals for their holiday decorations – and the criticism can get very petty and political.
Jeremy Bernard, White House social secretary in the Obama administration, says: ‘You didn’t have enough Santas, or you had too many Santas.
‘Or it wasn’t at all religious or it was too religious. You couldn’t win.’
For the record, Melani’s White House Christmas theme this year is ‘Home Is Where The Heart Is’, for which she collaborated with designer Hervé Pierre to transform several of the state rooms.
Overall, 75 wreaths decorate the windows, with more than 50 Christmas trees, 700 feet of garland, 25,000 feet of ribbon and 10,000 butterflies helping to adorn the White House.
This time, of course, Melania has been spared having to worry about how to decorate the East Colonnade – usually a major part of the display – as it’s been demolished as part of her husband’s plans to build a huge ballroom on the site of the East Wing.
Only a Grinch would think the First Lady would be happy to see the rest of the White House also reduced to rubble if it spared her another year tussling with the tinsel and the Christmas carpers.
SOURCE : DAILY MAIL
