‘She Can’t Stand Him’: Melania Trump Appears to Snub Donald’s Hand at ‘Les Misérables’ as Fans Say She’d Rather Be ‘Anywhere Else’
President Donald Trump, 78, and first lady Melania Trump, 55, made a rare public appearance together in Washington, D.C., this week.
He and the former professional model attended a performance of “Les Misérables” at the John F. Kennedy Center on June 11.
According to reports, the Trumps were met with mixed reactions. Members of the audience cheered and allegedly booed when the Republican couple arrived in the presidential box.
While attendees of the musical set in early 19th-century France had different reactions to Donald and Melania in person, people on social media took notice of a specific image of the pair.
Trump was photographed with Melania by his side wearing a black tuxedo. His spouse was seen in a black dress and dark glasses.
In the snapshot, the former “The Apprentice” reality television host is seen barely holding one of his wife’s fingers. Melania’s clenched mouth seems to suggest she was not enthused about the physical touch from her husband.
Numerous X users notice Donald and Melania’s awkward interaction. One person tweeted, “Melania wants to be anywhere else.”
Additionally, a second tweet stated, “Brutal. She’s not holding his hand—she’s enduring it. He’s clinging like a man who knows she’d rather be anywhere else.”
One individual wrongly proposed that the photograph of the Trumps was made by artificial intelligence, writing, “The photo looks like it has been AI-edited or created.”
“Melania obviously didn’t want to hold his hand in public, so Trump decided to at least grab her thumb for the cameras,” read a tweet.
Similarly, someone stated, “Pulling her hand away… Oh, she can’t stand him, that’s completely [obvious]. Anyone will tell you that you don’t need a body language expert. He’s a scum bag. He has no respect for women at all, that’s clear by his recording on that bus. She knows $$$$$.”
Donald wed Melania in January 2005 after his previous marriages to Ivana Trump and Marla Maples. Melania gave birth to the president’s youngest child, Barron Trump, in March 2006. There have been multiple occasions of her presumably expressing annoyance with the POTUS in public. One incident during the first Trump administration went viral.
In May 2017, Trump tried to hold Melania’s hand after landing on the Ben Gurion Airport’s tarmac in Israel. She reacted by batting him away as they walked from the airplane.
Melania later insisted in her self-titled 2024 memoir that her hand swipe against Trump at the Israeli airport was a “minor, innocent gesture, nothing more.”
However, Trump biographer Michael Wolff’s recent press run included the “Fire and Fury” book author alleging that Melania has a deep-seated hatred for the commander in chief.
“I asked someone very close to them. I said, ‘So what’s going on?’ And this person looked at me like I was a real dunce, and then said, ‘She hates his f—king guts!’” Wolff said.
During his interview with “60 Minutes Australia,” the veteran journalist also added, “[Trump] has a long history of relationships with other women, porn stars, and the like.”
The state of the Trumps’ complicated relationship was not the only bubbling scandal that made headlines from their rare date night out at the Kennedy Center.
CNN claimed that at least 10 to 12 members of the “Les Misérables” cast planned to sit out the show to boycott Trump’s unprecedented takeover of the Kennedy Center.
Trump was elected as the Kennedy Center’s Chairman of the Board in February 2025, following the MAGA leader’s purge of 18 Democratic appointees and the appointment of loyalists.
“It is a Great Honor to be Chairman of The Kennedy Center, especially with this amazing Board of Trustees. We will make The Kennedy Center a very special and exciting place!” the president stated on Truth Social.