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Huckabee Sanders Responds to Rumor FLOTUS Doesn't Live in White House

'Just when you think the Washington Post can't get things anymore wrong, they do'

May 7, 2018

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders rebuffed rumors Monday that First Lady Melania Trump has a frayed personal relationship with the president and so opted to live outside the White House.

Sanders was asked by CBS News Radio's Steven Portnoy if the administration would comment on the nature of the rumors noted in a Washington Post piece published on Sunday. 

"There was a story this morning there are persistent rumors that Mrs. Trump does not live in this White House and that she lives with her parents somewhere in the suburbs. What do you make of those rumors?" Portnoy asked.

The press secretary lambasted the rumors and rebuked the Post for making note of such "outrageous and ridiculous" claims.

"I make of the fact that just when you think the Washington Post can't get things anymore wrong, they do," Sanders said. "That is an outrageous and ridiculous claim. The first lady lives here at the White House."

Sanders elaborated that the first lady was a regular and permanent fixture of the White House and rumors to the contrary belonged in the gossip section of tabloid periodicals rather than in the Post.

"We see her regularly," Sanders added. "I think that is something that belongs in tabloid gossip, not on the front pages of the Washington Post, and I hope that they do better next time."

The Post's article pitched itself as an exclusive look at Melania Trump's reticent role as the first lady; however, at certain points, it read more like a thesis seeking to analyze the Trump marriage.

Political marriages tend to be more complicated than most, but it’s striking that the Trumps make so little effort to project a more united front. Although both are keenly aware of the power of visual images, some of their memorable moments together are awkward: Melania swatting his hand away on a tarmac, and several times caught on camera seeming to resist his outreach.

The portion of the article Portnoy referenced reported there was a "persistent" rumor Melania has not been living in the White House.

"For months, a persistent rumor has floated around Washington that Melania doesn’t really live in the White House and stays in a house with her parents and Barron near his suburban Washington school," the Post reported.