Donald Trump made a blunt remark about Melania Trump during a White House executive order signing.
The president, 78, spoke on stage last week after the First Lady, 55, introduced him at an outdoor event where the couple presented a new women’s health initiative together. During his remarks about the planned task force, Trump turned to his wife’s influence on the policy and delivered an unscripted four-word assessment of her temperament.
“Melania said they don’t have it [the women’s health task force]. So good going. You think she’s easy? She’s not so easy,” Trump said from the podium.
The comment came at the end of a short run of remarks in which the president first relayed what his wife had told him about the lack of such a task force. While Trump has been known to wander off topic during speeches, on this occasion he appeared to stick to the script before adding the personal aside about Melania.
The order calls on the health administration to establish a task force specifically aimed at improving women’s health research and outcomes. Women’s health is described as an issue very close to the First Lady’s heart, and the signing came after she had been urging her husband to take action on the matter in recent times. He has now agreed to sign it, with Melania standing alongside him at the White House.
Melania introduced her husband before he began speaking, and he used his remarks to address the task force directly. The event marked a rare public appearance together amid ongoing rumors and conspiracy theories about the state of their relationship. The couple have insisted that everything is fine, despite a few awkward moments in which they have appeared to be living very different lives.
Against that backdrop, the two took to the stage together outside the White House to address women’s health, an issue the First Lady has been pushing him on.
Melania has shown a firm side before, and on one occasion it involved her family. She has reportedly threatened to come down hard on anyone sharing images and information about her son, Barron Trump. Barron has come under threat in the past, most notably from Iran. He is a high-profile member of the Trump family, even though he is seen less frequently in the spotlight.
So while the president’s four-word line has stood out, the order itself rests on a push from the First Lady: a task force dedicated to women’s health research and outcomes, signed at the White House with Melania alongside her husband.
The White House has not announced the first meeting date for the new task force.