Melania Trump Watches Whatever TV Channel She Wants, Thank You Very Much

Michelle Ruiz
Updated
The First Lady’s spokesperson had a passionate statement in response to a report that the president was not pleased with Melania’s CNN viewing.

First Lady Melania Trump is a woman of few public words, but she would like the country to know this: She watches whatever TV channel she wants. That may be Bravo or HGTV or Discovery for Shark Week or C-SPAN if she gets the urge—that’s her business, really. But in response to a New York Times report this week that said President Trump was “not pleased” to see Melania’s TV on Air Force One tuned to his sworn enemy CNN during the couple’s recent trip to Europe, the First Lady’s spokesperson Stephanie Grisham fired back, issuing a statement that at once shamed the media for caring about this trivial issue and defended Melania’s right to choose her own news.

“Did you know that every 15 minutes, a baby is born with NAS?” Grisham said, referring to neonatal abstinence syndrome, in a statement to CNN. “Maybe you’d like to talk about the 160,000 kids who skip school every day for fear of being bullied, or that 280,000 students are physically attacked in schools every month. . . . Seems kind of silly to worry about what channel she watches on TV (any channel she wants btw [sic]) or if she heard some recording on the news.”

This is a point well taken—there is an overabundance of attention paid to trivial news, trolling, obsessing over crowd sizes, and Roseanne’s ratings these days—and, oh yeah, much of it flows directly from the mouth and Twitter feed of Melania’s own husband. It’s also an awkward bit of chiding when the statement goes on to dignify the first couple’s reported cable news clash with a response (“any channel she wants btw”). According to the Times, Trump mandated that Fox News be the default channel on Air Force One TVs and caused “a bit of a stir” over the mere sight of Melania watching CNN. Is her reply a subtle (or perhaps not so subtle) way of flouting the rules? Does she, unlike the commander in chief, stand with Jim Acosta?

While Grisham’s advice is sage and good, she should definitely cc the West Wing including the president on it, as he deems the “silly” issue of the couple’s opposing TV preferences to be a matter worthy of an email exchange between the White House Military Office and the White House Communications Agency, requesting (per the Times’s report) “two additional televisions to support Beam, a TiVo-like streaming device, to make sure the president and First Lady could both watch TV in their separate hotel rooms when they travel.” Maybe this means Melania can watch the Obamas’ forthcoming Netflix programming in peace.

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