Melania Trump should have had 2020 off. The coronavirus was supposed to be her excuse to kick back, relax and use the pandemic as a reason to not worry about hosting holiday events at the White House. But there will be as many as 20 Christmas events this year, despite Covid-19. What I want to know is: Who bullied Melania into doing all this Christmas stuff?
One of the few joys we’ve had during the Trump administration has been learning how warped Melania’s tastes are when it comes to jolly Christmastime fun.
We know how much she resents this particular part of her duty as first lady. And yet one of the few joys we’ve had during the Trump administration has been learning how warped Melania’s tastes are when it comes to jolly Christmastime fun. Besides being extremely extra in her aesthetic, her White House Christmas decorations have trended Victorian — but less in the “A Christmas Carol” sense, with the waistcoats and bonnets and the carol singing, and more in the “this mansion is possessed by the ghost of a vengeful spinster abandoned at the altar at Yuletide” sense.
Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz of New York Magazine’s The Cut perfectly illustrated this trend Monday when she gave readers a look back at Melania’s holiday décor “ranked from most to least haunted.” The top slot went to 2018, when the East Wing was ceremoniously lined with blood-red trees, invoking a visceral horror scene.
While this year’s fare is much tamer, it’s still worth wondering why she had to go through the trouble at all. This fall, America learned that Melania does not enjoy Christmas, at least not at the White House. We know this thanks to her former friend and staffer Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, whose tell-all book came out in September. In October, she was still making the rounds to promote it. And this time, she came with audio, a conversation with Melania that she’d secretly recorded in July 2018.
In a clip that aired on CNN, the first lady was heard sounding a lot like her husband as she railed about how the media covers her. She also lamented that she was forced to take charge of the White House Christmas decorations.
“I’m working like — my ass off — on Christmas stuff, you know?” Melania could be heard saying. “Who gives a f— about Christmas stuff and decorations? But I need to do it, right?
“Then I do it,” she continued. “And I say that I’m working on Christmas planning for the Christmas. And they said, ‘Oh, what about the children that they were separated?’ Give me a f—ing break. Where they were saying anything when Obama did that?”
Melania “doesn’t shake in her boots ever and she tells Donald exactly how she feels,” says Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former friend of the First Lady and ex-East Wing adviser.
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) October 2, 2020
She believes “if he’s going to do it, he better do it right and he better do it with brass knuckles.” pic.twitter.com/biXV2SmbBE
We got precious little time to savor the audio before the 2020 news cyclone swept it away. Within hours of her diatribe’s having become public, President Donald Trump announced that he and Melania had tested positive for Covid-19. But we had just enough time to gift us with this banger of a remix from YouTubers The Gregory Brothers.
ok, FINE, we’ll auto-tune the “Christmas stuff” thing into a carol 🎅🎄🦌 pic.twitter.com/VEprOK3QOP
— The Gregory Brothers (@gregorybrothers) October 2, 2020
Thankfully, Melania recovered fully, leaving her able-bodied enough to take up the Christmas decoration reins once again. But the question remains: Who’s making Melania do all of this in the middle of a pandemic? Is this her just going along with her duty, or was it deemed a political matter and thus outside her ability to turn down?
Those in the West Wing seem to be using the multiple Christmas parties as a final act of defiance, snubbing their noses at the nattering nabobs of negativity who think it’s a bad idea to host large events in the middle of a pandemic.









