More Than a Year After Melania Handed Obamas a Blue Box, Michelle Reveals Gift From New FLOTUS
Former first lady Michelle Obama revealed in a recent interview the contents of the mysterious gift she was given by Melania Trump last year on Inauguration Day.
In January 2017, the day that Donald Trump was sworn in as president of the United States, Melania presented the outgoing first lady with a blue Tiffany’s box.
The exchange sparked intense speculation on social media, as users wondered what could possibly be in the box.
But that question has now been answered, as Obama told TV personality Ellen DeGeneres the whole story in an interview that was broadcast Thursday.
“When the transfer was happening, when Donald Trump and his wife were moving into the White House, there was a gift exchange,” DeGeneres began.
“The Tiffany’s box,” Obama responded, while nodding her head and smiling. After DeGeneres asked her point blank what exactly the gift was, Obama explained that it was a “frame.”
“It was a lovely frame,” Obama said, as DeGeneres played a clip of the incident.
The former first lady went on to note that the situation was somewhat awkward, saying that at first, she wasn’t sure what to do with the gift.
“There’s all this protocol,” she said. “This is like a state visit, so they tell you that you’re going to do this, they’re going to stand here.”
“Never before do you get this gift, so I’m sort of like, ‘OK, what am I supposed to do with this gift?'” she recalled thinking.
“Everyone cleared out and no one would come and take the box, and I’m thinking, ‘Do we take the picture with (it)?’ And then my husband saved the day — see he grabbed the box and took it back inside. But everybody cleared out — no staff, no one. I was like, ‘What do you do with the box?'”
As USA Today pointed out, it was not the first time a first lady had presented her counterpart with a gift on Inauguration Day.
In 2009, when Barack Obama was taking office, Michelle handed outgoing first lady Laura Bush a cream box with a red ribbon on it.
When a photo was taken of the two couples, Bush hid the gift behind Barack Obama’s back so it wouldn’t be in the picture.
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