They had to learn how to argue with each other
Like any other couple, the Obamas have their differences. Perhaps one of the reasons their marriage is so solid is because of the approach they take to fighting. Michelle and Barack argue and respond to anger in different ways, so learning how to argue with each other took some time.
"I am like a lit match," Michelle told Elle about her fighting style. "It's like, poof! And he wants to rationalize everything. So he had to learn how to give me, like, a couple minutes — or an hour — before he should even come in the room when he's made me mad. And he has to understand that he can't convince me out of my anger. That he can't logic me into some other feeling." It's a mark of how seriously they take their relationship that the Obamas have developed a way to make sure that they handle disagreements with grace.
They don't make a big deal out of Valentine's Day
Seeing how much affection the Obamas have for each other, it would be natural to assume that they do it up big each year on Valentine's Day, but the couple doesn't actually celebrate the holiday. There's a pretty good reason for this, though, and it's not because they're V-Day grinches. Michelle's birthday is on January 17th, just after the rush of Christmas dies down. "So by Feb. 14, we're kind of tired," she said on Live! With Regis and Kelly in 2011 (via the New York Post).
They might not celebrate the holiday, but Michelle said that her husband is "very romantic" and still finds ways to woo her. "He doesn't forget a thing, even when I think he is… [and] I give him a little attitude, he always comes through." The then-first lady added, "Got to keep the romance alive, even in the White House."
Impeachment Briefing: Far From Iowa
January 23, 2020
By Noah Weiland
Welcome back to the Impeachment Briefing. With the trial underway, senators are mostly stuck in Washington for the next few weeks — a predicament for those running for president.
What happened today
Democratic managers continued making opening arguments in the trial, concentrating on the first impeachment article accusing President Trump of abuse of power. The lawmakers incorporated constitutional references, reams of texts and deposition transcripts, and countless video clips to break down how Mr. Trump tried to coerce Ukraine’s president into announcing politically motivated investigations into the Bidens.
Read our full story about the day, some key highlights and an analysis of how the managers are using video of Mr. Trump at the trial.
How Democrats organized their arguments
Like yesterday, the House managers today divided their arguments in thematic ways, with each member taking on different features of Mr. Trump’s Ukraine pressure campaign and applying them to the idea that the president abused his power.
Representative Jerry Nadler began the presentation with an hourlong speech on the constitutional history of impeachment. He argued that the history of the Constitution made it clear that a criminal violation was not necessary to impeach a president, citing past comments from some of Mr. Trump’s firmest allies: Attorney General Bill Barr and Senator Lindsey Graham.
Representative Sylvia Garcia used her time to explain what she called “groundless” corruption accusations against the Bidens. Ms. Garcia’s presentation was aimed at pre-empting Mr. Trump’s lawyers and proving that there was no basis to the assertions that former Vice President Joe Biden had acted corruptly by demanding the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor, or to the president’s claim that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election, which Ms. Garcia said “muddled the waters.”
Representative Adam Schiff explained how he thought Mr. Trump had appropriated Russian propaganda for his pressure campaign. He accused Mr. Trump of weaponizing Russian talking points to help himself, through conspiracy-based investigations that he wanted Ukraine’s president to announce. “The Russians not only got him to deflect blame from their interference in our democracy, but they got him to withhold military aid,” Mr. Schiff said. “Now of course, there was this convergence of interest between the Kremlin and the president.”
Representative Hakeem Jeffries displayed logs of text messages and other correspondence involving American diplomats. He sought to show how a back-channel of foreign policy directly influenced Mr. Trump’s communications with Ukraine’s president, capping each sequence with the phrase “this for that,” a reference to what Democrats believe was a quid pro quo — in this case, restoring military aid in exchange for the announcement of Ukrainian investigations into the Bidens.
Behind the scenes with the managers
Our photographer Erin Schaff had exclusive access to the prep meeting that the Democratic managers held this morning in a room off the Senate floor, where they and their staff members prepared for another long day together.
Erin Schaff/The New York Times
Mr. Schiff, Mr. Nadler and Representative Jason Crow listened to Mr. Jeffries, who consulted one of the many binders that the managers have had with them at the trial.
Representative Zoe Lofgren and Mr. Nadler are two of the longest-serving members of the House. Ms. Lofgren participated in the Nixon and Clinton impeachment inquiries. Here, accompanied by packs of Skittles, the two lawmakers prepared for the trial just a few minutes before it opened at 1 p.m.
Representative Val Demings, a former police chief and a member of both the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, argued at the trial today that “this moment is about ensuring that every voter, whether a maid or janitor, whether a nurse, a teacher or a truck driver, whether a doctor or a mechanic, that their vote matters and that American elections are decided by the American people.”
Running for president while considering impeaching one
This week has intertwined the two dominant elements of American politics: the presidential campaign and impeachment. That has made the lives of a few Democratic senators near the top of the 2020 polls — Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar — a little complicated.
My colleague Lisa Lerer, who is covering the presidential race and writes our On Politics newsletter, reported this week on the senators’ competing demands. I asked her about how the trio is coping.
Lisa! It’s so nice to finally have you here. I am all for newsletter cross-pollination. One aspect of the trial we haven’t spent too much time discussing is this group of senators who want to run against the president they’re also hoping to impeach. The Iowa caucuses are just days away. What do they do?
This is a situation where there are no good choices. You absolutely cannot skip the impeachment hearing. And while impeachment is not a topic that comes up a ton at their campaign events, it’s red meat for Democratic primary voters. They expect you to be there every day during the trial.
At the same time, at this point in the campaign, candidates are doing six events in Iowa a day. I talked to David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s former senior adviser, today and he estimated that in 2008, Mr. Obama probably talked to well over 1,000 voters a day there leading up to the caucuses.
I’ve been wondering for days now: Do Ms. Warren and Mr. Sanders want to be in D.C.? The White House counsel said on Tuesday that he imagined they wanted to be in Iowa.
This is a historic moment! If you are a senator, this is one of the few moments when you’re really living history, considering how little the Senate seems to be doing these days. I think they sincerely want to be here in Washington. But it’s really a Sophie’s choice.
The days end up being so long for them. If you’re stuck in the trial from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m., the next morning you have to squeeze in Senate and campaign activity, starting early. The schedule will be even more demanding when you fly overnight on Saturday for one day of campaigning in Iowa. Several of them are flying private. On Sunday, we already see they’re packing in events.
You’ve been covering this campaign. Do you think being trapped in their Senate chairs will actually hurt them politically?
The classic term for this period is “M vs. O”: momentum vs. organizing. The Sanders and Warren people will make the argument that the organization of the campaign has been set in place, and it’s the organization that will carry the day.
But everyone knows Iowans would rather have the star of the show rather than a stand-in. This isn’t like campaigning in California or even New York City. It’s a place where people expect to see you in person, in their living rooms. I spoke to a woman in Iowa today who said she’d seen 19 candidates in person. They want to meet you and touch you and shake your hand.
What are some ways that the senators are making up for their Iowa absences? I saw that Mr. Sanders is having Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stump for him in Iowa.
No one has developed a hologram yet. But they’re doing tele-town halls. They’re sneaking out during dinner and coffee breaks in the trial and calling supporters. Ms. Klobuchar has been going on MSNBC, CNN and multiple local news outlets in New Hampshire and Iowa. They’re doing Twitter takeovers — Ms. Klobuchar’s daughter took over her accounts, since the senators can’t tweet from the Senate chamber during the trial.
At least one of the candidates is trying to stay in campaign shape. On Tuesday, Ms. Warren spent her trial breaks rushing to the restroom, talking to her colleagues and trying to eat food in her hideaway. They had pizza and salad. She only ate the salad, which shows an impressive amount of stress-eating discipline.
Lisa’s newsletter, On Politics, is a daily dispatch about the people and issues shaping the 2020 election. You can subscribe to it here.
What else we’re following
· Mr. Graham said that there would be “a lot of pressure” on him next week to subpoena the Bidens and the whistle-blower whose complaint prompted the impeachment inquiry. But Mr. Graham said he would not “give in to that pressure, because I don’t think it will serve the Senate and the country well.”
· Speaker Nancy Pelosi has closely managed Mr. Trump’s impeachment from the beginning, and she’s not letting up during the Senate trial, even calling Mr. Schiff to check in as she wound her way through Jerusalem en route to a state dinner. Think of her as the eighth impeachment manager, my colleague Nick Fandos writes.
· Two days into the Democrats’ presentation, restlessness has set in for the senators. My colleague Catie Edmondson chronicled the ways that lawmakers were passing the time: by doodling, chewing gum, doing crosswords, playing with Apple Watches (electronics ban be damned) and sneaking into the Senate cloakroom to check their phones. During a lunch break today, Senator Richard Burr passed out fidget spinners for his 52 Republican colleagues.
Impeachment rules allow for only a few fixed cameras to be in the Senate chamber for the trial, giving us an extremely limited visual sense of the proceedings. So to make up for it, our graphics team produced a 3-D model of what the chamber looks like now.
Even the managers have to eat:
Kasie Hunt @Kasie
Spotted in the Senate Carry Out in the basement of the Capitol: Impeachment Manager Jerry Nadler ordering a Meatball Sub, hold the cheese 2.55 PM 23rd January, 2020
Separate bathrooms help them keep the peace
Michelle and Barack might know how to give each other space to cool down in the heat of an argument, but this isn't the only area where they give each other space. In an interview with Today, Michelle revealed one of the secrets to the Obamas' strong relationship. "One of the keys to a successful marriage is separate bathrooms," she said. "When he [Barack] enters my bathroom sometimes I'm like 'Why are you in here?' And he's like 'I live here, can't I enjoy my bathroom too?'"
Anyone who has ever had to share a bathroom with someone can probably relate to wanting that space for themselves, and it's something that at least one other first lady has in common with Michelle. Current first lady Melania Trump has also said that she believes the secret to having a healthy marriage is for both spouses to have their own bathroom.
Things you didn't know about the Obamas' marriage
Has there ever been a cuter couple than Michelle and Barack Obama? The charming couple enamored the world before ever setting foot in the White House, and continues to do so years after the end of Barack's presidency. Together with their daughters, Sasha and Malia, the former first family is still beloved, and their life seems like the stuff of fairy tales.
BY CHRISTINE-MARIE LIWAG DIXON
https://www.thelist.com/141927/things-you-didnt-know-about-the-obamas-marriage/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_3834296
Has there ever been a cuter couple than Michelle and Barack Obama? The charming couple enamored the world before ever setting foot in the White House, and continues to do so years after the end of Barack's presidency. Together with their daughters, Sasha and Malia, the former first family is still beloved, and their life seems like the stuff of fairy tales.
Things have not always been easy for the Obamas, though. Michelle and Barack have an epic love story that spans decades, but, like any other couple, have faced their fair share of hardships. In many ways, their challenges were even greater because they have been in the public eye for so long. Yet, through it all, they manage to stay happy and in love. What's their secret? To figure that out, we need to take a closer look at their relationship. Here's everything you didn't know about the Obamas' marriage.
She still managed to have some epic birthdays
You shouldn't feel too bad for Malia — her parents always made sure she knew her birthday was special, and she had some pretty amazing celebrations. Her actual birthday was often spent in hotel rooms, so her parents would throw a big sleepover party with all her friends once they were back home.
Another shocker: According to a 2008 interview with People, her mother Michelle said that they don't do birthday presents in their family. "We spend hundreds of dollars on a birthday party and movie tickets and pizza and popcorn," she said, her husband adding, "That sleepover is enough. We want to teach some limits to them. And their friends bring over presents."
In 2009, as the Chicago Tribune reports, she was the first in her family to have a birthday in the White House, with 20 of her girlfriends joining her at Camp David. Not too shabby, Malia. Not too shabby at all. Of course, does any of that compare to an 18th birthday with the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Janelle Monae? That's a tough call.
Living in the White House brought them closer together
The long years of Barack being on the road and leaving Michelle alone with the children were rough, but temporary. Fortunately, things got better for the entire family once the Obamas moved to the White House. While, as president, Barack still had a full schedule, he was also able to dedicate more time to his wife and his children — aided in no small part by the fact that he was now able to work from home.
"That's the beauty of living above the office: Barack is home every day," Michelle told Oprah shortly after the family moved to the White House in 2009. "The four of us sit down to eat as a family. We haven't had that kind of normalcy for years. And now I can just pop over to his office, which sometimes I'll do if I know he's having a particularly frustrating day."
Donald Trump Impeachment _ White House Counsel Pat Cipollone slams ‘outragious’ Adam Schiff
He's the only child of Donald and Melania
https://www.nickiswift.com/32376/things-didnt-know-barron-trump/sl/hes-the-only-child-of-donald-and-melania
One thing about the 45th First Family to take note of is that it has a little bit more sprawl than the previous one, owing to Donald Trump's multiple children by three wives. Barron Trump, the youngest of the clan, is but one branch of a family tree that includes Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, and Donald Trump Jr., born to Donald's first wife, Ivana Trump; as well as daughter Tiffany, born to Donald's second wife, Marla Maples.
As for Barron, who was born on March 20, 2006, he's the only child of Donald and Melania Knauss Trump. He lived with his mom in their Trump Tower penthouse on Fifth Avenue in New York City, while dad moved into the White House after assuming his new role as POTUS, according to NBC News. Donald and Melania were married about a year prior to Barron's birth, in January 2005.
Rep. Collins explodes, gets standing ovation in impeachment debate
Mr. Schiff, Mr. Nadler and Representative Jason Crow listened to Mr. Jeffries, who consulted one of the many binders that the managers have had with them at the trial.
"Laughter is the best form of unity in a marriage"
Clearly, there's a lot that goes into a strong relationship, and what works for one couple might not work for another. Maybe one day science will be able to come up with a formula for a perfect marriage, but we aren't there yet. For now, though, it's hard to imagine anyone going wrong with this piece of advice from the former first lady.
When asked at a White House luncheon in 2011 what keeps their union strong, the New York Post reported that Michelle said "I think a lot of laughing. I think in our house we don't take ourselves too seriously, and laughter is the best form of unity, I think, in a marriage." Michelle added that she and her husband "find ways to have fun together" and to carve out time for themselves. "We keep each other smiling and that's good," she said.
The untold truth of Malia Obama
https://www.thelist.com/83935/untold-truth-malia-obama/sl/she-loves-this-sport-even-though-shes-not-a-natural
Despite the fact that she spent eight years living in the White House, attending speeches and state dinners, and rubbing shoulders with some of the most important people in the world during her father President Barack Obama's tenure, the eldest Obama daughter, Malia, managed to keep a pretty low profile during her time in Washington, D.C. Now college-aged, and trading in the White House for a Harvard dorm room in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the former president's daughter is starting to branch out and make headlines of her own.
From what she did with that gap year between high school and enrolling at Harvard, to what really went on during Lollapalooza (in 2016 and 2017), Malia Ann Obama is more than just a former president's daughter. Here's some insight into everything you never knew about the first daughter and her life before, during, and after her eight years in the White House.
His delayed move to the White House was because of school
Barron Trump and his mother did eventually join President Trump in residence at the White House, but the reason they stayed behind wasn't because of the lack of gold plating in the West Wing. It was so Barron could finish out his year at the prestigious and very-expensive Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, where he attended through the end of the school year.
Reassuring him that he'd be able to finish out his year at the school that Us Weekly reported had a price tag of around $45,000 per year at the time, Barron's mom told him, "Take it day by day, enjoy your life, live your meaningful life as I like to do." We're not sure the then-10-year-old Barron was able to process such a life-changing move through the lens of that fortune cookie wisdom, but he did get to finish the year with his friends and classmates. Although things at the school definitely changed after November 8th, 2016.
Even the managers have to eat:
·Watch: Day 4 of public Trump impeachment hearings (FULL LIVE STREAM)
Representative Val Demings, a former police chief and a member of both the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, argued at the trial today that “this moment is about ensuring that every voter, whether a maid or janitor, whether a nurse, a teacher or a truck driver, whether a doctor or a mechanic, that their vote matters and that American elections are decided by the American people.”
The Truth about Donald Trump’s Youngest Child
Things you didn't know about Barron Trump
https://www.zergnet.com/news/4032570/the-truth-about-donald-trumps-youngest-child
Most of the Trump children have become well-known to the public over the years, but Barron Trump remains a family outlier. The youngest son of the President first captivated the eyes of the world late on Election Night when he stood behind his father on the stage while victory was accepted. Barron, of course, looked more sleepy than jubilant on stage, which inadvertently won over the cold hearts of an America that was mostly happy the election cycle was finally over.
Since his father took office, Barron has remained largely out of sight, however, we've managed to learn quite a bit about about America's new boy-prince. For starters, his pre-White House living situation at Trump Tower was unimaginably sweet. Oh, and his mother used to moisturize his face with caviar — but you probably could have guessed that.
Barack's desire to help the African American community won Michelle over
Even after she began dating Barack, Michelle wasn't sure right away that it would work out. Growing up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck, Michelle worried that a life with Barack might be unstable. She told the Hyde Park Herald (via The Washington Post) that the future president "was really broke." He had a "cruddy" wardrobe and a rusted out car. "I thought, 'This brother is not interested in ever making a dime,'" she said.
Still, Michelle was drawn to Barack. On a date at a Chicago church, where Barack was meeting with people he had worked with as a community organizer, Michelle saw his passion for helping poor African-Americans. "He talked about the world as it is, and the world as it should be," she said in a speech at the 2008 National Democratic Convention. "And he said that, all too often, we accept the distance between the two, and we settle for the world as it is, even when it doesn't reflect our values and aspirations." Michelle was won over by Barack's idealism, and the rest is history.
He lives like a king
https://www.nickiswift.com/32376/things-didnt-know-barron-trump/sl/he-lives-like-a-king
In her interview with Parenting, Melania also dropped the bombshell news that Barron's digs at Trump Tower are so sweet, he actually has an entire floor to himself, complete with his own personal flourishes that include the incorporation of "planes and helicopters" into the decor of the rest of the house. Not only that, but it was no big deal if he wanted to draw all over the walls, because "we can paint it over," she said. With that kind of set-up, it's no wonder that they weren't in a rush to move him into the White House.
And though he didn't his own wing of the executive residence, his lifestyle wasn't exactly getting downgraded. According to Inquisitr, the White House has a staff of 100 people who "will know what every member of the Trump family likes, as far as food, snacks, and personal items. This will be stocked and waiting for the family so they can obtain it at a moment's notice." Rumors even swirled that Barron was getting a Goldendoodle puppy named Patton to go along with his new home. However, as of this writing, Patton has yet to arrive, meaning the lawns of The White House remain pristine, ready at a moment's notice should President Trump want to fire up the sprinkler or have a nice barefoot frisbee toss with the boy.
Skirting the Secret Service on prom night
While Malia may have had the Secret Service teaching her how to drive, that doesn't mean she was able to drive herself around. In fact, during her time at the White House, there was only one time she was able to bend the rules about having the Secret Service drive her places. According to her mom, Malia was allowed to skirt the Secret Service's chauffeuring duties on prom night.
In her memoir Becoming, Michelle Obama revealed (via People) that a 16-year-old Malia went to prom with "a boy she kind of liked" back in 2015. Malia asked her parents to "be cool" and they did so by shaking her date's hand, taking a few photos, and sending the couple on their way. Michelle Obama wrote in her memoir, "We took what was perhaps unfair comfort in the knowledge that Malia's security detail would basically ride the boy's bumper all the way to the restaurant where they were going for dinner before the dance and would remain on quiet duty throughout the night."
She's a total movie buff
Malia has no shortage of interests. In fact, one of her biggest passions seems to be film. While you may think her passion lies in television after those internships as a production assistant on Extant and on the set of HBO's Girls, Malia spent part of her gap year between high school and college learning more about the film industry at The Weinstein Company. Just before beginning her Weinstein internship, she was also spotted at the Sundance Film Festival at a screening of the film Beach Rats.
It probably shouldn't come as much of a surprise though, because Malia's mother Michelle told People all the way back in 2012 that her movie buff daughter had an interest in film. "Malia has expressed some interest in filmmaking," Michelle said. "Just like her father, she is an avid reader, and she enjoys movies. But she's a [high school] freshman, so she also knows she has years in college to explore her interest." This is probably one reason that Malia toured colleges known for filmmaking, such as New York University, before ultimately deciding on Harvard.
He's the first boy to live in the White House in decades
https://www.nickiswift.com/32376/things-didnt-know-barron-trump/sl/hes-the-first-boy-to-live-in-the-white-house-in-decades
After making his move to Washington, Barron Trump officially become the first boy to grace the halls of the White House in almost 60 years. Yep, the last time America had a "First Boy" was all the way back in 1961, when John F. Kennedy's son, JFK Jr., moved into the White House when he was just a baby, according to CNN.
And Barron made his entrance to the presidential residence in true Trump fashion, exiting Marine One and strolling across the White House lawn to his new digs while wearing a shirt emblazoned with the words 'The Expert.' And here we thought Uncle Jared was the boy wonder of the family.
Getting political during her gap year (with a splash of fake news)
Instead of heading to college right after graduating from high school in 2016, Malia took a year off before attending Harvard. To say that Malia was busy during her gap year is an understatement. First, she interned at the U.S. Embassy in Spain. It's unclear whether Malia has any interest in a political career as there wasn't much news about the internship. Real news, that is.
In the summer of 2017, fake news started circulating that she was fired from her internship for smoking marijuana. The now-defunct website that first "reported" the incident supposedly had an "About Us" page that claimed it "uses facts that don't exist and relies more on imagination than the truth." Unfortunately that didn't stop people from latching on to the rumor.
Regardless of her career ambitions, it's clear Malia has a penchant for political activism considering she protested the Dakota Access Pipeline. In an interview with Seth Meyers, Shailene Woodley (who famously got arrested for her involvement in the DAPL protests) revealed that Malia attended the Sundance Festival "to hear what the chairman from Standing Rock… and some of the water protectors had to say."
He may or may not have a nanny
https://www.nickiswift.com/32376/things-didnt-know-barron-trump/sl/he-may-or-may-not-have-a-nanny
In a September 2015 interview with People, Donald and Melania Trump insisted they did not use a nanny to help raise Barron. "I like to be hands-on," Melania told the magazine. "I think it's very important. Barron is 9 years old. He needs somebody as a parent there, so I am with him all the time. As you know my husband is traveling all the time."
Days after the interview was published, Donald, in true form, told the New York Post that there was, in fact, a "young woman" who "works with Barron." Still, to this day, reports describe Melania as being "really devoted" to her son; a source told the Post in November 2016 that Melania is often seen picking up Barron from school. That same source also claimed that Melania had not relied on nannies to help raise her kid. So, who knows what the heck is going on?
Marriage counseling helped them get back on track
Hard as it may be for us to believe, the Obamas don't have a perfect marriage. Their strong relationship has been tested at many points over the decades, and they have had to turn to outside help to keep things going. In a 2018 interview with Elle, Michelle said that "there was work we had to do as a couple," and they had to go to counseling to work out some of their problems.
Michelle admitted that she thought counseling was going to be a way to help her "make [her] case against [Barack]," but it turned out that she learned a lot more about herself. "[Counseling] was about me exploring my sense of happiness," she said. "What clicked in me was that I need support and I need some from him. But I needed to figure out how to build my life in a way that works for me."
Michelle says that being in the White House didn't change Barack
Power has a way of changing people, but Michelle swears that becoming the leader of the free world didn't go to her husband's head. "I can honestly say that when it comes to his character, and his convictions, and his heart, Barack Obama is still the same man I fell in love with all those years ago," Michelle said in her speech at the 2012 National Democratic Convention (via NPR).
"He's the same man who started his career by turning down high paying jobs and instead working in struggling neighborhoods where a steel plant had shut down, fighting to rebuild those communities and get folks back to work… because for Barack, success isn't about how much money you make, it's about the difference you make in people's lives." Michelle went on to talk about Barack's dedication to his children and his devotion to his wife. "And I didn't think it was possible, but today, I love my husband even more than I did four years ago… even more than I did 23 years ago, when we first met," she said.
Michelle believes that marriage "still ain't equal"
She might have one of the most enviable marriages of the 21st century, but Michelle Obama knows that, as an institution, marriage still needs a lot of work. "Marriage still ain't equal, y'all," she said during a speech she gave as part of her book tour (via Vanity Fair). "It ain't equal. I tell women that whole 'you can have it all' — mmm, nope, not at the same time, that's a lie. It's not always enough to lean in because that s*** doesn't work."
The profanity might be surprising coming from the former first lady who has always been careful about the language she uses but, if anything, it drives her point in further. Michelle is the perfect example of how being a wife, mother, and career woman is a constant balancing act. "Be better!" she told the men in the room during in interview with Oprah at the first White House summit on the State of Women in 2016 (via VOA News). "Do the dishes. Don't babysit your children. You don't babysit your own children. Be engaged. Don't just think going to work and coming home makes you a man."
The Secret Service taught her how to drive
Coming of age in the White House means things the average kid takes for granted aren't necessarily a guarantee. Take, for instance, that sitting presidents aren't allowed to drive. That means Malia had to get behind the wheel for the first time without her dad's guidance. Sure, she might have Secret Service available to drive her around wherever she wants and whenever she wants, but like any teen, Malia was excited to learn how to drive herself when the time came.
"Driving for Malia, I think, gives her a sense of normalcy, like the rest of her friends are doing," Michelle Obama said in an interview with Rachael Ray (via CNN). "And my kids have got to learn how to live in the world like normal kids." But don't assume that means Michelle took the reigns in teaching her oldest daughter. Michelle revealed that the Secret Service wouldn't even let her get in the car with Malia and took on the task themselves.
Struggles with infertility put a strain on their marriage
Life wasn't all smooth sailing for Michelle and Barack once they were wed. In a 2018 interview with Good Morning America, Michelle said that she had suffered a miscarriage 20 years earlier. The loss was a heavy emotional blow. "I felt like I failed because I didn't know how common miscarriages were because we don't talk about them," she said. "We sit in our own pain, thinking that somehow we're broken."
Michelle underwent fertility treatments to conceive Malia and Sasha, and the process was another ordeal. Michelle had to inject herself daily for several weeks. Barack, who was serving in the state senate at this point, was "swallow[ed up] by work," Michelle wrote in her memoir, Becoming. This, she said, "left me largely on my own to manipulate my reproductive system into peak efficiency." While the process was grueling, Michelle said that Barack remained "sweet" and "attentive" throughout the entire journey.
WATCH: Trump attorney slams House Democrats’ handling of impeachment | Trump impeachment trial
Michelle supported Barack's presidential run because she didn't think he could win
Michelle has always been Barack's biggest cheerleader, but she confessed that she didn't think he had a hope of winning the 2008 presidential election. She had no real wish to be the first lady and supported her husband's run "because deep down I was like there's no way he's going to win," she said during her 2018 book tour for Becoming (via the New York Post). Far from not having faith in her husband's leadership skills, Michelle just didn't think America would elect a black president, "let alone a black president named Barack Hussein Obama."
In spite of her reluctance to take on the pressures of the White House, Michelle threw herself wholeheartedly into her husband's campaign. She insisted on playing an active role. Two of Barack's aides told the New York Times that Michelle told her husband's team "I've never done this before. I just need you to tell me what to do." Her open support of Barack and the display of their aspirational marriage would turn out to be one of the key factors in clinching the election.
Donald didn't change his diapers
In that same interview with Parenting, Melania said of her husband, "He didn't change diapers and I am completely fine with that. It is not important to me. It's all about what works for you. It's very important to know the person you're with. And we know our roles. I didn't want him to change the diapers or put Barron to bed. I love every minute of it."
But that's not to say that Donald wasn't a doting dad in his own way. Melania also said that he and Barron love to play golf, eat dinner together and "enjoy family time" at Mar-a-Lago, the family's Florida getaway. Golf actually comes up a lot when Melania is asked about Donald's relationship with Barron, like in this 2015 People interview when she again said that the two men in her life "go alone for dinner, one-on-one" and "play golf together." Golf and dinner, huh? Sounds a bit more like the closing of a business deal than a loving father-son day
Sparks flew from their very first meeting
While they were drawn to each other from the first time they met, Michelle was reluctant to date Barack. She was 25 and he was 27, but as a first year associate at Chicago's Sidley & Austin, a corporate law firm, Michelle was Barack's mentor when the first-year law student worked at the firm in the summer of 1989. "He sounded too good to be true," Michelle told David Mendell, author of Obama: From Promise to Power (via The Washington Post). She initially dismissed him as a "good-looking, smooth-talking guy." The fact that he was her subordinate, and her belief that "the only two black people" at the firm dating would be "tacky," delayed the beginning of their relationship.
Barack told Oprah that he was "struck by how tall and beautiful [Michelle] was," saying that working with her was "the luckiest break of my life." After Michelle turned down multiple requests for a date saying it would be inappropriate, she finally agreed to go out with him after he offered to quit his job for her. Michelle took Barack up on the date, but didn't make him leave his job.
She loves this sport, even though she's not a natural
Prior to moving into the White House, the Obama girls were already pretty busy. According to People, that included "soccer, dance and drama for Malia, gymnastics and tap for Sasha, and tennis and piano for both."
During another People interview with their father, he told the magazine how happy he was that his daughters were interested in things they weren't good at. "Malia loves soccer, but she's still so tall and gangly compared to some of these little kids who are zipping around her, although she's getting better. The fact that she's not good at everything right away … means learning lessons about having to work hard at something and improve." Always a supportive dad, he even made time during his presidency to watch her soccer games.
Malia and her sister are also apparently fans of professional soccer and wanted to meet Argentinean player Lionel Messi when they traveled to Argentina with their father. Unfortunately, not even the U.S. president can disrupt an international sports schedule, and the Obama daughters were unable to meet the soccer star.
Those Lollapalooza videos, though
Malia's first scandal started at Lollapalooza in 2016: A video surfaced of her smoking what appeared to be a joint. "You could smell the marijuana smoke," eyewitness Jerrdin Selwyn told Radar Online. Just a few months later, someone took another controversial photo of Malia at a frat house, according to Radar Online. The image shows Malia in a "smoking kills" t-shirt, ironically standing beside a bong. According to David Maranis' book Barack Obama: The Story, the former President Obama also had an interest in marijuana when he was younger, so he might not have been majorly concerned.
None of these controversies stopped Malia from attending the music festival again in 2017. While no nosy onlookers caught her smoking anything this time, she drew attention to herself with her wild dance moves. TMZ got video of Malia rocking on with friends, and even rolling around on the ground at one point. TMZ also has video of Malia getting whisked out of the festival on a golf cart, implying that she might've gone a little too hard.
Their social media posts about each other are downright adorable
Barack and Michelle are about as cute as couples come, and their social media posts to each other show how much they're still feeling the love. In November 2018, Barack couldn't help hyping the release of his wife's memoir, writing on Instagram: "Of course, [Michelle is] my wife, so I'm a little biased here. But she also happens to be brilliant, funny, wise — one of a kind. This book tells her quintessentially American story. I love it because it faithfully reflects the woman I have loved for so long."
The couple also posts about each other on special occasions, like Barack's birthday in 2018. Michelle posted a picture on Instagram of her husband looking off into the distance, and wrote "Happy birthday @BarackObama! The view is always better with you." Earlier that year, Barack captioned a picture of the couple on Instagram with a sweet birthday message of his own. "You're not only my wife and the mother of my children, you're my best friend. I love your strength, your grace, and your determination. And I love you more each day. Happy Birthday."
Could they be any more adorable?
He takes after his father
https://www.nickiswift.com/32376/things-didnt-know-barron-trump/sl/he-takes-after-his-father
Given that he loves to wear suits and moisturize his skin with caviar, it should surprise exactly no one that Melania often refers to her only son as "little Donald" and "mini-Donald." "He is a very strong-minded, very special, smart boy," Melania told Parenting. "He is independent and opinionated and knows exactly what he wants. Sometimes I call him little Donald. He is a mixture of us in looks, but his personality is why I call him little Donald."
"When he was 5 years old, he wanted to be like daddy: a businessman and golfer," she added later in the interview. "He loves to build something and tear it down and build something else. He is very detailed at drawing. We travel often and he remembers everything he sees. Sometimes later the same day or the next he would build something like he saw or imagine something himself."
In a 2013 interview with ABC News, Melania again referred to Barron as "mini-Donald," which if we're being honest, has to sting a little for Barron's older half-brother, the actual Donald Jr.
He's not into wearing sweatpants
https://www.nickiswift.com/32376/things-didnt-know-barron-trump/sl/hes-not-into-wearing-sweatpants
As one might expect from someone born into a billion-dollar business family, Barron Trump has been dressing for success pretty much his entire life. He even wore a suit to the launch of his half-sister Ivanka's book when he was only three-and-a-half-years-old, according to People magazine.
"He's not a sweatpants child," Melania said while discussing her son with ABC News in 2013. "He doesn't mind putting on [a suit]-but not every day- and he likes to dress up in a tie sometimes like Daddy." But that's not to say that Barron doesn't like a little comfort. In fact, he sometimes pairs his prep school uniform with customized New Balance sneakers that reportedly cost $149, according to Footwear News. Yep, you read that right. The Trumps pay $149 for Barron's sneakers and something called Footwear News actually exists in reality.
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He attends St. Andrew's Episcopal School
https://www.nickiswift.com/32376/things-didnt-know-barron-trump/sl/he-attends-st-andrews-episcopal-school
He attends St. Andrew's Episcopal School
Melania Trump released a statement regarding the family's choice for Barron's matriculation in the fall of 2017. St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Potomac, MD, which according to The Washington Post costs approximately $40,000 per year, has the honor of educating the president's son. In addition to the school's prestigious reputation — it boasts that 100% of its graduates go on to some type of higher education — St. Andrew's has a range of impressive facilities, including "a 14,000-volume, two-story library with an audiovisual classroom and a periodical reading room; a multipurpose theater/assembly/lunch space that features a stage and light/sound booth; two visual arts studios with ceramics wheels and a kiln; a darkroom; two full-size basketball courts; a fitness room; a dance studio; and two full turf fields for softball, baseball, lacrosse and soccer." Not impressed? There's more.
According to The 74, St. Andrew's is "the only school-based center for mind-brain-education science in the country," meaning part of its curriculum is based on "a rapidly growing multidisciplinary field that aims to translate new developments in neuroscience and psychology into better classroom practices." Sounds like we could have a second stable genius on our hands.
Barron is the first child of a sitting president to attend St. Andrew's, though the school does claim other famous alumni, like eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Maybe if Barron plays his cards right, he might end up rich like that guy some day.
Here's proof that she was never spoiled
Just because she was the first daughter, doesn't mean Malia Obama was spoiled. While she and her sister did "sorta, kinda" get an allowance, it wasn't much, and it came with responsibilities. Malia's father told People, "Originally, we were giving her a dollar a week as long as she did all her chores."
And if you thought the girls got special treatment once they moved into the White House, you'd be mistaken. According to The New York Times, the Obama daughters still had to make their own beds and clean their own rooms. Malia's father told Barbara Walters on ABC News that, while his daughters are special to him and their mother, "they're not special, you know in terms of having to do their homework or having to do chores." Her mom Michelle added that the first thing she said to the White House staff was: "Don't make their beds. Make mine." While she may have said it with a laugh, we're pretty sure she wasn't joking.
Parents at Barron's school had a post-Election freakout
https://www.nickiswift.com/32376/things-didnt-know-barron-trump/sl/parents-at-barrons-school-had-a-post-election-freakout
Anyone who so much tried to walk near Trump Tower in the wake of Donald Trump's presidential victory can tell you the major headaches it caused for the city of New York. Apparently, though, few people were more worried than the parents at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School. "Some parents are freaking out and worked up about security and what the school is going to do," a board member told Vanity Fair shortly after Trump's 2016 election win. Some were worried about safety concerns; others were reportedly annoyed about various inconveniences — like, you know, the time the school's sole elevator was allegedly blocked off for Melania Trump for an open house event in 2016.
The school even had a real life scare scenario in March of 2017 when a lockdown procedure was put into place after a suspicious vehicle was spotted outside the building. According to the Daily News, "a military-style bag in a beat-up blue and silver pick-up truck with an Indiana license plate" was reported to police as a "suspicious package," triggering a bomb squad response and the school's reactionary security procedure. It's a frightening scenario for any school, but one that carried additional weight when the President's son happened to be enrolled there.
Representative Zoe Lofgren and Mr. Nadler are two of the longest-serving members of the House. Ms. Lofgren participated in the Nixon and Clinton impeachment inquiries. Here, accompanied by packs of Skittles, the two lawmakers prepared for the trial just a few minutes before it opened at 1 p.m.
Barack didn't want to get married at first
Impossible as it is to imagine, the Obamas' celebrated marriage might not have happened if Michelle had been a little less persistent. At the end of the summer of 1989, Michelle continued to work in Chicago while Barack returned to Harvard to finish law school. According to The Washington Post, Barack was dedicated to the relationship and madly in love with Michelle, but he didn't believe that marriage was necessary, calling it a "meaningless institution."
Michelle kept turning up the pressure, though, wanting a decades-long marriage like her parents who, at the time, had been going strong for 30 years. In 1991, Barack finally surprised Michelle with a ring after she began to talk once again of marriage, telling her "That kind of shuts you up, doesn't it?" It might not have been the most conventional of proposals, but it was an effective one. The two were married the following year, taking their commitment to the next level.
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She never has (and never will) have a birthday of her own
America's birthday is a time when American politicians are expected to take part in all the fanfare, picnics, and parades — events that are almost as important to the 4th of July as the fireworks. So when your father is one of those politicians and you happen to share a birthday with America, well, your birthday gets a little upstaged. Such has always been the case for Malia.
According to a 2009 Chicago Tribune piece, she spent many birthdays in hotel rooms, celebrating between her father's appearances. In 2007, for instance, she "spent her birthday following her father around southern and central Iowa," according to the Tribune. Things weren't much different in 2008 when, the Tribune reports, "She spent the evening in a Holiday Inn Express hotel room in Montana. During a break in campaigning, the family partied in the hotel room, ordering in dinner and a birthday cake and dancing to her favorite songs from artists such as the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana."
He's fluent in two languages
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Although he reportedly takes after his father, Barron has also inherited his mother's roots as well. According to a 2016 interview with GQ magazine, Melania revealed that Barron "speaks Slovenian fluently." In fact, he speaks the language with his grandparents, who lived near Trump Tower, at the time of the interview.
Melania also once bragged to People in 2009 that at just three-years-old, Barron was also speaking French in addition to Slovenian and English. But two years later, during an appearance on The Joy Behar Show, Melania said, "Barron speaks two languages completely perfect. He goes from one thing to another, Slovenian/English." What happened to French? Was he just not fluent enough to mention it yet? Does Barron Trump own a beret? These are questions of national importance that need an answer.
He stays out of the spotlight
https://www.nickiswift.com/32376/things-didnt-know-barron-trump/sl/he-stays-out-of-the-spotlight
With his official appearances limited to traditional first family events like Inauguration Day festivities and the White House Easter Egg Roll, it seems that Barron is on track to mirror the playbook of young children of past presidents by mostly steering clear of the public eye.
And it seems like Melania intends to uphold that tradition as well. In an October 2016 interview with ABC News, Melania said she is hoping to shield him from the public as best she can. "I teach him, I explain to him so he knows what's going on," she said. "He's taking very well. I keep him balanced and — just have him a childhood as normal as possible. And he's enjoying his school and his sports. He's a great athlete. And I just want to have him — out of the spotlight for now."
Over two years later, that plan seemed to be firmly in place, at least, according to the Washington Examiner which reported in December 2018 that Barron "rarely appears in public with his parents." Speaking with Fox News' Sean Hannity around the same time, Melania said that even though Barron isn't living "a normal life" since the family's move to Washington D.C., he is "enjoying" it there. She also said her efforts to "protect" him from public scrutiny are required to "give him the childhood he deserves."
Barack's political career made motherhood an even bigger challenge for Michelle
Michelle never set out to be a politician's wife, and her husband's long years of campaigning and being in public office took a toll. Barack first ran for State Senate in 1996, putting a lot of stress on their early years of marriage. Michelle wrote in Becoming that Barack would spend long hours working. "I understood it was nothing but good intentions that would lead him to say, 'I'm on my way!' or 'Almost home!,'" she wrote. "And for a while, I believed those words. I'd give the girls their nightly bath but delay bedtime so that they could wait up to give their dad a hug."
"I was mad," Michelle later told Elle. "When you get married and have kids, your whole plan, once again, gets upended. Especially if you get married to somebody who has a career that swallows up everything, which is what politics is."
He used to moisturize his skin with caviar
https://www.nickiswift.com/32376/things-didnt-know-barron-trump/sl/he-used-to-moisturize-his-skin-with-caviar
If you needed further proof that Barron isn't your typical 10 year old, try this one on for size: in 2013, his mother admitted to ABC News that, at the time, she applied her own line of caviar-infused moisturizer to his skin after he took his his nightly bath. "It smells very, very fresh," Melania said of her Caviar Complex C6 skin care line. "I put it on him from head to toe. He likes it."
Unfortunately for the two of them, this tradition may have been short-lived; according to Racked, Melania's skin care line fell apart shortly after its high-profile launch.
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