A facial expression that the new first lady made during President Donald Trump’s inauguration has a lot of people focusing less on the commander in chief’s policy-making and more on his relationship with his wife.
The short clip, which popped up on social media after Friday’s inaugural ceremony, has spawned theories that Melania Trump is unhappy with or scared of her husband. It has also prompted the hashtag #FreeMelania.
The clip shows Melania Trump smiling broadly at the new president as he turns around, smiles at her and appears to mouth a few words to her. Immediately after his back is turned, however, the look on her face changes drastically.
The clip had some people claiming that the footage had been manipulated, perhaps even posted backward, and that Melania instead smiled at her husband when she saw him looking at her or when he blew her a kiss. Snopes.com, the internet's urban legend debunker, chimed in on Tuesday by sharing footage of the inauguration ceremony in its entirety, as well as the inaugural parade and some of the day's protests.
The 8-hour-plus YouTube video, posted by Time Magazine, showed the viral moment 2 hours and 52 minutes into the day's ceremony, during the Rev. Franklin Graham's contribution to the program.
In the video, Graham stepped to the podium and began his prayer by telling Trump that, in the Bible, rain is a sign of God’s blessing.
“And it started to rain, Mr. President, when you came to the platform,” Graham said.
Trump and those around him chuckled and he looked back at his wife, who was also smiling -- for a few seconds, at least.
Forward to the 2:50:00 mark in the video below to see the moment in question.
Snopes pointed out that Trump's words could not be made out, not even by lip reading, because his back was to the camera. The website's authors also pointed out that his words, seen from a different angle in the news feed from CBS News, could have been aimed at his 10-year-old son, Barron Trump, who could be seen fidgeting behind him and next to Melania Trump.
In the Time footage, Melania Trump looked toward their son as she frowned and she appeared to say something to him.
"It's possible that Melania was simply weighing the importance of her new role, that she was unhappy about standing in the rain, that she was reacting to her son's behavior or that her change of expression was due to something unrelated to the inauguration or her husband's comments," the website's authors wrote.
Forward to the 1:21:00 mark in the video below to see the moment from the second angle.
The hashtag #FreeMelania had already taken hold by the time Snopes looked into the footage, however. Social media users on Facebook and Twitter have spent days speculating on the cause of her look of distress.
Not everyone who weighed in on the incident was sympathetic to the first lady's perceived plight.
Melania Trump has not addressed the controversy.
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