First lady Jill Biden had a lot to say in what is likely her last interview before she and her husband, President Joe Biden, leave the White House on January 20 and some of it was about her predecessor and successor Melania Trump.
In speaking with The Washington Post in an interview that was done weeks ago but published this week, the outgoing first lady said that she invited Melania for tea, and the once and future first lady declined.
“Joe and I respect our institutions, our traditions,” she said, “and it’s very important to me that they continue and we — ” she said before hesitating and sounding resigned, “What would be the point of nastiness?”
She said she did leave a note for the next first lady hat she handed to Presidenrt-elect Donald Trump at the opening of the Notre Dame Cathedral in France.
“I congratulated her and I offered help,” Jill said.
She said the president-elect told her, “I had a good meeting with your husband in the Oval Office.”
“Yes,” she recalled saying to Trump, “because you’re both talkers.”
She also did not mince words about her feelings for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
“Let’s just say I was disappointed with how it unfolded,” she told the Post regarding how Pelosi was reportedly behind the push to have Joe Biden drop his reelection bid.
“Why?” the reporter said.
“I don’t know. I learned a lot about human nature,” the first lady said before being pressed and saying, “I think that’s all I’m going to say.”
But that was not all she said.
The reporter got to direct questions about Pelosi, who famously said, when asked if President Biden was going to stay in the campaign against President-elect Donald Trump, “It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run,” after Biden already said he was staying in the hunt for the White House.
“Like I said,” the first lady said to The Washington Post reporter, “I’ve been thinking a lot about relationships.”
“It’s been on my mind a lot lately, and — ” Jill continued before a pause and then began using her “teacher’s voice,” according to the reporter.
“We were friends for 50 years,” she said. “It was disappointing.”
It may be the reason the first lady appeared so happy when Trump visited the White House and why the two got along so well at the opening ceremony in France last month.
Trump stated that his private conversation with Jill inside the cathedral was a positive interaction despite their long history of exchanging harsh remarks during the two election cycles, the New York Post reported.
“Very nice. She couldn’t have been nicer,” Trump said about their talk.
“It’s politics. You have to get used to it,” he said regarding political differences in the past. “She was very nice, and we had a very nice conversation.”
Trump also revealed insights from his discussions with global leaders during that first international trip since securing a second term, including a trilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“He wants to make peace,” Trump told the New York Post in a phone interview of Zelensky. “That’s new.”
“He wants to have a ceasefire,” he added. “He wants to make peace. We didn’t talk about the details. He thinks it’s time, and Putin should think it’s time because he’s lost — when you lose 700,000 people, it’s time. It’s not going to end until there’s a peace.”
Trump said he spoke to Zelensky about how to end the nearly three-year-old war that began in February 2022. “I’m formulating a concept of how to end that ridiculous war,” said Trump.