\n<\/p>\n
This article is part of\u00a0<\/i>Upstream,<\/i><\/a>\u00a0The Daily Wire\u2019s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories \u2014 from our featured writers to you.<\/i><\/p>\n ***<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cOur First Lady, Melania, is here,\u201d <\/span>Jimmy Kimmel<\/span><\/a> said in a sketch for a hypothetical All-American White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner, where he imagined himself as host. \u201cSo beautiful \u2026 Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.\u201d Two days later, at the official dinner, the first lady would be forced to take cover behind her dinner table as gunfire erupted outside the <\/span>press gala<\/span><\/a> in Washington, D.C.<\/span><\/p>\n Kimmel\u2019s live audience, screaming with laughter, couldn\u2019t have known what would unfold post-show. And maybe they forgot about the other near-tragedies for the Trumps. It\u2019s been almost two years since President Donald Trump was <\/span>shot in the ear<\/span><\/a> in Butler, Pennsylvania. And maybe the headlines about the two armed conspirators hoping to shoot their shots near <\/span>Mar-a-Lago<\/span><\/a> and Trump International Golf Club are fading into the distance. <\/span><\/p>\n Kimmel pressed on, bagging that low-hanging fruit like he was working the checkout at Target, following up the dead husband joke with laughs about the \u201cMelania\u201d documentary\u2019s Rotten Tomatoes score (a website he says was \u201cnamed after her husband\u2019s testicles\u201d) and an Epstein tie-in.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Kimmel was practically throbbing with \u201cwitticisms.\u201d <\/span>Do not continue using if you experience symptoms of <\/span><\/i>TDS<\/span><\/i><\/a> such as sweaty palms, limited perspective, and blah late-night comedic instincts.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Calling him a coward, Melania Trump later posted to <\/span>X<\/span><\/a>, \u201cKimmel\u2019s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue about my family isn\u2019t comedy \u2014 his words are corrosive and [deepen] the political sickness within America.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Melania turned 56 on Sunday, possibly still reeling from surviving what <\/span>President Trump<\/span><\/a> called \u201ca rather traumatic experience for her.\u201d While Melania exudes Slovenian-style strength, it seems everyone piles on the First Lady any chance they get. She has filled the most visible unelected White House role for years. Is this really still an itch that needs to be scratched?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n My eyeballs first popped out of my head regarding <\/span>Melania <\/span>Trump Derangement Syndrome (MTDS) when first lady Jill Biden\u2019s sensible pumps shuffled into the White House in 2021. Outlets such as <\/span>The Cut<\/span><\/a> lamented the so-called \u201cfashion drought\u201d of the first Trump administration (dismissing Melania\u2019s Jackie Kennedy-besting style) and praising hum-drum inauguration day fits by Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, and Dr. Jill (with a Ph.D. in serving a look, apparently) in her tweed<\/a><\/span>\u00a0dress, coat, and COVID-19 mask.<\/span><\/p>\n Never mind Melania\u2019s actual career as a <\/span>fashion model<\/span><\/a> for GQ, Sports Illustrated, and Vanity Fair. That was before she entered 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and was snubbed by <\/span>Vogue<\/span><\/a>, which has been documenting first ladies since 1929. Curious about U.S. history according to Cond\u00e9 Nast? Here\u2019s a crash course: Mrs. Lou Henry Hoover, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mamie Eisenhower \u2014 everyone in between \u2014 Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama, [BLANK], Jill Biden, [BLANK]. No offense, but not every FLOTUS is a looker. And some of them are obviously Republicans.<\/span><\/p>\n When Vanity Fair reportedly flirted with the idea of finally putting Melania on its cover <\/span>in 2025<\/span><\/a>, an editor for the magazine told <\/span>the Daily Mail<\/span><\/a>, \u201cI will walk out the motherf***ing door, and half my staff will follow me. We are not going to normalize this despot and his wife; we\u2019re just not going to do it. We\u2019re going to stand for what\u2019s right.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Former first lady Michelle Obama, who graced the covers of <\/span>15 major fashion magazines<\/span><\/a> during her husband\u2019s presidency, later complained about not getting the same \u201c<\/span>grace<\/span><\/a>\u201d all the other first ladies got. <\/span>Waah.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Even if you hate her husband with an orange-tinted passion, you can\u2019t deny Melania\u2019s elite status. Go ahead and make fun of her accent, but she speaks <\/span>six languages<\/span><\/a> (Slovenian, French, Serbian, German, Italian, and English). She married up, bore and raised a son (who actually seems pretty well adjusted for growing up in <\/span>Trump Tower<\/span><\/a> and the White House), stuck by her man, and graciously puts up with an onslaught of mainstream donkey doo no matter what she does.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Remember <\/span>Melania\u2019s first all-white Christmas<\/span><\/a> at the White House, complete with a <\/span>350-pound gingerbread house<\/span><\/a>, 53 bedazzled trees, and 31,000 holiday cookies? Yeah, the internet hated it! <\/span>Memes<\/span><\/a> flooded the internet, featuring Melania as a winter witch and describing the minimalist decor as a reflection of her cold, dead soul.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Her \u201cBe Best\u201d anti-bullying initiative, advocating for the mental health of kids suffering from online abuse, was bashed when she launched it in 2018. She battled headlines describing the platform as having \u201c<\/span>childlike strangeness<\/span><\/a>\u201d and calling her \u201c<\/span>disingenuous<\/span><\/a>\u201d for being married to a \u201cbully\u201d of a president and trying to help others.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt is not news or surprising to me that critics and the media have chosen to ridicule me for speaking out on this issue, and that\u2019s okay,\u201d <\/span>Melania said<\/span><\/a> at the time. \u201cI remain committed to tackling this topic because it will provide a better world for our children.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Notably, according to the <\/span>UN Human Rights Council<\/span><\/a>, 66% of surveyed kids in 2026 said online bullying is only getting worse. Maybe it would be a different story had there been a few flattering headlines about the first lady\u2019s idea. But whatever, exploited children. Trump sucks!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Just so we have all our historical ducks in a row, first ladies have been doing some pretty wild things since we started electing presidents. The original popularizer of \u201cmillennial pink,\u201d Mamie Eisenhower, decorated with so much of it that the press started referring to the White House as the \u201c<\/span>Pink Palace<\/span><\/a>.\u201d Mary Todd Lincoln held literal <\/span>s\u00e9ances<\/span><\/a> (some with Abe!) in the White House to cope with her children\u2019s deaths. And gaining fame as the \u201csecret president,\u201d <\/span>Edith Wilson<\/span><\/a> basically ran the country when Woodrow Wilson suffered a paralyzing stroke while in office, \u201c<\/span>seizing control<\/span><\/a>\u201d of presidential duties she was not elected to do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And we\u2019re supposed to believe Melania wearing a <\/span>$39 Zara jacket<\/span><\/a> that said \u201cI really don\u2019t care, do you?\u201d was the worst?<\/span><\/p>\n Until Melania entered the scene, America largely gave every first lady a pass for rising to the occasion in a role they were compelled to agree to and crush. Read to kids, pretend to help choose the state dinner menu, and decorate for every holiday. You have \u201cone\u201d job; better nail it in pantyhose, lady.<\/span><\/p>\n Maybe you can blame the ire toward Melania on the clickable outrage of the media cycle. Someday soon, we\u2019ll all be focused on a different POTUS and every last detail of his or her ever-loving spouse. But for now, wouldn\u2019t it be nice if we could critique the main character and not the woman keeping the first family afloat? I\u2019m inclined to agree with Melania, who stated on <\/span>X<\/span><\/a>, \u201cEnough is enough.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n