Slate wants to know what “message” Melania Trump is sending with her "red Christmas trees of death” this year.
Because apparently, there aren’t enough real issues to report on, or something.
It all started when Melania Trump posted a short holiday video onTwitter showing off this year’s White House Christmas décor, which, as First Lady, she’s in charge of picking out. (Here’s the whole thing, in case you missed it in all the media’s non-coverage of her.) While the vast majority of the video showed pretty standard holiday trimmings like beautiful white-lit trees and flowing pine garlands, one brief clip of the First Lady strolling down a hallway bedecked with bright red Christmas trees has sent what appears to be half of Looneyville into conniptions.
Including, as per usual, Slate.
And they're not the only ones who've decided Whoville's having just a little too much fun this year. Check out these Grinches:
Nothing says “we gas immigrant children” like blood red Christmas trees. pic.twitter.com/tmtmzrKBUr
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) November 26, 2018
The complicated story of the real, red Christmas trees https://t.co/tUe5h0WWH1
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 27, 2018
"Welcome to Gilead": Melania Trump's red Christmas trees have Twitter crying "Handmaid's Tale." https://t.co/FrpbgTu6V6 pic.twitter.com/oQHwx6lc14
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) November 27, 2018
Now this isn’t surprising, given the liberal outrage last year at FLOTUS’ choice of holiday cheer. In her Christmas at the White House, Melania put up a pretty row of bare winter branches backlit with glowing white light – a scene progressives were quick to photoshop into a horror scene from a Tim Burton movie.
Hey, ‘tis the season for nothing else to write about, I guess.
And look, I’ll be honest. I’m pretty “meh” about Melania’s red Christmas trees. When it comes to Yuletide décor, I’m fairly traditionalist. So part of me views FLOTUS’s pick as an edgy modern take on an old classic, while the other part just sees the entire defensive line for the Georgia Bulldogs. I probably wouldn’t put one in my foyer. Which is fine, because they aren’t in mine – they’re in hers. And I’m good with that. The rest of her decorations were gorgeous, by the way, and I applaud her thinking outside the age-old giftbox.
But basic decency and a simple difference in style didn’t keep leftist Twitter from lighting up like Rockefeller Center with memes mocking the First Lady’s latest festive taste - not because she did anything wrong, of course, but because she's Melania Trump, and the poor woman can't wear a jacket without getting a dump truck's worth of criticism for her trouble.
Now, while most are predictably ridiculous, I did have a good laugh at the sight of Melania Trump not giving one flying flip as she strolls in her Louboutins down a row of dour-faced Offreds staring down at her like she just told them to go pick her a basket of oranges while she fans herself by the pool. Suck it up, handmaids.
But here’s a thought for you to stick in your stocking next to your coal lumps this year: if you’re so bent out of shape over a bunch of Christmas trees just because you don't like who's in the White House, maybe take a hard look in the mirror and figure out why your panties get so easily twisted into a bunch before a bunch of ghosts show up in the middle of the night and demand to know why you’re sucking the joy from everyone else.
So what’s Melania’s message with her “red Christmas trees of death,” Slate? Maybe it’s to tell you and every other shallow nutbag like you to shove off.
Merry Christmas.