Even though The Late Show With Stephen Colbert isn't releasing any new episodes this week, the show still made sure to offer up something entertaining for its fans. In honor of Valentine's Day, Colbert released a White House video valentine, imagining what Donald Trump's Valentine's Day message to the First Lady might sound like.
Throughout the video, which uses subtly edited audio clips, Trump tries to explain how much he loves his wife, but he keeps getting distracted by memories of his victory in the 2016 presidential election. He wants to describe how much he loves Melania, but becomes sidetracked by other things he loves — like women, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback “Big Ben” Roethlisberger. Trump doesn't stop there, either; he also reminds Melania that he loves New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, "the African Americans," Florida, and Utah.
From the beginning of the video, Colbert's video makes it seem as though Trump has difficulty staying on message when it comes to his marriage. "Melania, I just wanted to say from the bottom of my heart — which by the way, is so strong," Trump says in the video, veering quickly off course. "Good stamina, unlike Hillary. That's why she lost the election. Remember that?" The rest of the video continues in a similar fashion, with Trump attempting to compliment Melania and rapidly getting lost in his own triumphs.
For example, Trump subsequently tells Melania she's beautiful — "so beautiful, just like that beautiful scene on November 8." After that, Colbert's Trump drops all pretense of focusing on Melania. The president goes on to list all the people and groups that he believes love him; in addition to Tom Brady and "the African Americans," Trump also points out that the "bikers love me," "the Asians love me," and "the Hispanics love me."
"Florida loves Trump and I love Florida," Trump adds. "You know, I won Florida by a lot." Melania, however, does not seem to make Trump's list of people who apparently love him.
At the very end of the video, Trump appears to return to his main point. An image of Melania flashes up on the screen, and Trump says in the background, "But baby, I'll tell you what. I love, I love, I love — Utah!"
As The Daily Beast pointed out, the video seems to poke fun at the Trumps' marriage, which Colbert suggested was "complicated" during a previous episode of The Late Show.
“The state of our union is strong,” Colbert said late last month. “The state of their union? It’s complicated.”
In his controversial book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, Michael Wolff alleged that the president and first lady "spent relatively little time together," but that Trump often described Melania as his “trophy wife" when she wasn't around. Melania has been the subject of a number of rumors since her husband assumed the presidency, with speculation that she is unhappy in both her marriage and her role as First Lady.
However, following Melania's absence at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, her communications director — Stephanie Grisham — denied the "salacious & flat-out false reporting about Mrs. Trump by tabloid publications." Grisham also rejected Wolff's allegation that Melania was unhappy about her husband's victory in the election. Instead, Grisham tweeted last month, the First Lady is "focused on her family & role as FLOTUS."
Despite Grisham's attempts to contradict speculation about the First Lady, Melania has been a subject of rumors since before her husband took office. So even though Colbert's Valentine's Day video consists of heavily edited audio, it's not surprising that it received so much attention.
