On Wednesday, “The View” — the daytime sociopolitical chat show which spent four years fixated on the fact Donald Trump was a mean meanie ...
On Wednesday, “The View” — the daytime sociopolitical chat show which spent four years fixated on the fact Donald Trump was a mean meanie who said mean, mean things about nice people — had a good laugh about Melania Trump’s English skills.
Because that’s not mean, of course.
The irony of this was that the comic interlude came as they grilled Stephanie Grisham, the former Trump administration White House press secretary who’s since disavowed her former boss. As they pressed her for why she continued to work for President Mean Tweets, they ended up creating a viral mean tweet of their own.
Grisham was Melania Trump’s former chief of staff before she took the press secretary role; she went back to working for the first lady in April 2020 until leaving after the events of Jan. 6, 2021, as the New York Daily News pointed out.
So, after bashing Donald Trump for quite a while (Grisham appeared both Tuesday and Wednesday on the ABC gab-fest), it was time for a bit of Melania-centric xenophobia.
“I mean, she was also a liar,” co-host Sunny Hostin said. “I mean, she lied about her educational background–“
“She’s a birther,” Joy Behar chimed in, before noting that she says “she speaks five languages.”
“Yeah, she claims to speak several languages,” Hostin said.
“And I’ve heard her speak a few of them,” Grisham said, before adding she’d heard three from the former first lady.
“Was one of those is English?” Hostin said, getting a laugh out of the audience:
Protip: If you’re going to mock the English of a non-native speaker, it helps if you don’t do it by asking, “Was one of those is English?” Just saying.
Unbelievably, this isn’t the first time Hostin has made news for tacitly mocking Melania’s English.
As Deadline noted, in 2018, co-host Whoopi Goldberg had to warn Hostin not to read a Melania quote in a faux-Slovenian accent. Back then, everyone seemed to have a good laugh about the former first lady’s accent, too.
Of course, here’s the ultimate irony:
I’d like to challenge Hostin to translate “Was one of those is English?” into Slovenian on air without the aid of Google. It’d be more entertaining than whatever noise the ladies of “The View” are usually prattling on about, that’s for sure
What’s amazing is that, except for a bit of a ruckus on conservative Twitter, this passed without notice elsewhere. Mock anyone else’s English skills on genteel daytime television and you’ll usually find yourself canceled by sundown.
Heck, even mild disrespect for Jill Biden could get you dismissed. Sorry, I forgot — Dr. Jill Biden. Have to throw that honorific on there for the current first lady’s Ed.D. degree, lest anyone mistake me for a misogynist.
Melania’s English skills merit a free pass for xenophobia, however. But the Trumps were the mean ones. Curious how that works.
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