Since the election, comedians everywhere have made hay out of the relationship between Donald Trump and his third wife Melania. There was even a #FreeMelania hashtag after this video went viral:
Literally even the slightest touch by that garbage monster makes her flinch pic.twitter.com/iCLTRbKvdj
— Jess Dweck (@TheDweck) February 19, 2017
But we’d never heard anything from the First Lady herself — until tonight. And she used her husband’s favorite thing in the world to do it: Twitter.
If you happened to see Melania Trump’s Twitter likes at around 7:00 p.m. Pacific, you’d have seen that she liked two tweets. One was her very first tweet:
Hello Twitter!
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) May 23, 2012
And this was the other:
Seems the only #Wall @realDonaldTrump's built is the one between him and @FLOTUS #Melania #trump pic.twitter.com/XiNd2jiLUF
— Andy Ostroy (@AndyOstroy) May 3, 2017
Sadly, she knew she’d been spotted and unliked the tweet within the hour. But thankfully, we’ve got a screencap:
And we’re not the only ones — Melania’s cry for help didn’t go unnoticed:
Pretty sure the first tweet (her own) that she liked is just a Python script. #Melania #Wall #Hannity pic.twitter.com/KjOc7JlkKW
— deej 👩🏼💻☕️ (@deejitarian) May 3, 2017
Whether #Twitter or #BlackTwitter
The cyber eyes rarely miss anything!#Melania pic.twitter.com/uMd2jC5PAX— Horace Towns (@thehoracetowns) May 3, 2017
@AndyOstroy @realDonaldTrump @FLOTUS #Melania girrrrllll its okay to leave!
— CM RM (@ToxsickDarling) May 3, 2017
45 and his "wife" (with whom he spends no time) couldn't be any more different#Melania https://t.co/XW4xZ9ASIR
— Douglas Connors (@calmecam) May 3, 2017
#SaveMelania #Melania throwing #shade over #trumpwall credit to.@AndyOstroy for the original tweet pic.twitter.com/0djUJMznOD
— CM RM (@ToxsickDarling) May 3, 2017
https://twitter.com/TJ_Knight/status/859602586516807680
In between the laughing and the schadenfreude, it is important to note that #FreeMelania is problematic. By saying “Free Melania,” we imply that she’s trapped, and that she can’t act on her own.
But we have to remember — this is what she chose. She chose to get married and stay married to a repulsive, yet powerful man. She lives a three-and-a-half hour drive away from him. She only has to see him for photo ops.
Furthermore, before her husband became president, she pushed racist conspiracy theories about President Obama’s American citizenship and tolerated anti-Semitic attacks against a Jewish writer who wrote a slightly unflattering profile of her.
Much like the recent praising over Ivanka Trump — crediting her with softening her father — Melania’s getting a free pass. But people are beginning to call out the idea of Ivanka as progressive savior:
And just like Ivanka, no matter how much we desperately want to believe there are forces to stop Trump in his own family, it’s not so. She’s complicit — after all, as the fable says: “You knew I was a snake when you picked me up.”
Donald Trump is a snake. It’s obvious to everyone. And Melania Trump knew that.
And she still picked it up.
