Michelle Obama is criss-crossing the globe promoting her new book, Becoming, a New York Times bestseller. The book is not just a catalogue of her eight years in the White House as first lady, but more of a memoir growing up, as she recently told Jimmy Fallon, as a “working class kid,” to attorney, to wife of the first black president. Still, between the optimism and relatable notes in her book, there are hints of the first lady conservatives often saw as hypocritical and slightly arrogant.
While appearing on Jimmy Fallon’s show, Obama took a few understated swipes at the Trump family. “That was a day,” she said of the inauguration. A day she has previously said she was so frustrated (and, perhaps, disappointed?) she stopped even trying to smile.
In the middle of explaining things that irritated her on Inauguration Day, leaving her with a “Bye, Felicia” attitude, she listed her daughters’ friends insisting on one last White House sleepover and “the Tiffany’s box.” What’s the problem? How could the gift of something from one of the world’s most notable jewelers be a joke?
When the Trumps arrived at the White House for the procedural swap of presidencies, Melania Trump handed Michelle a large blue box from Tiffany & Co. (She has said before it was a frame). Though Obama didn’t say anything more than that snide comment on Fallon’s show, Obama had previously told Ellen DeGeneres she didn’t know what to do with the gift because it was awkward and didn’t follow protocol. Barack Obama had to hand the gift off to an aide.
The implication, of course, was that Melania, with all her European manners, just didn’t know how a transition was done. The Trumps were stupid — the Obamas, having been in the White House eight years, were well-seasoned.
Ironically, Kate Bennett pointed out in CNN’s Cover/Line newsletter, Michelle Obama greeted the Bushes in 2009 with a large box as well (not from Tiffany’s).
This kind of hypocrisy isn’t surprising from the Obamas. Given what President Trump is facing right now, it might not be surprising of any politician.
In a 2015 commencement speech, Obama talked about how hard her life was due to racial discrimination, among other things. “I was also the focus of another set of questions and speculations, conversations sometimes rooted in the fears and misperceptions of others. Was I too loud, or too angry, or too emasculating? Or was I too soft, too much of a mom, not enough of a career woman?” She lamented the fact that she had been labeled uppity after all she went through, even though she did become first lady eventually.
But even though she did come from a working-class background, her hard work, and America’s choice for president, paid off. As first lady, she had it good. She traveled the world on the taxpayer’s dime to places like Ireland and Africa — trips that cost upwards of $10 million. Date nights with Secret Service and incredible restaurants cost thousands, and she donned expensive outfits from designers like Jason Wu.
It’s not that Obama doesn’t have a great rags to riches story to tell — she does. It is, in its own way, inspiring. But after awhile, it’s hard to give her credit when she enjoyed a life of relative luxury as first lady and then turned around to pass the baton in a way that was as sneering as it was judgmental.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
