OPINION:
My goodness, Melania Trump’s hand has certainly taken over the media cycle these past 24 hours or so, hasn’t it?
The press is obsessed with discerning the truth of Melania’s now-infamous swat of her husband’s hand as they walked the red carpet at Ben Gurion International Airport. Did she just swat away President Donald Trump’s hand?
Did they have a fight aboard Air Force One?
Are they getting divorced?
Is that a “Go, Hillary” button on Melania’s coat lapel?
OK, that last is fabrication — but that’s practically where the press is leading.
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The supposed hand swat was Monday morning. On Tuesday morning, more than 24 hours later, CNN’s headline ran, “First lady’s hand swat a viral sensation.”
Ain’t that the truth. Almost all the media outlets reporting on the split-second-in-time posted the video of the scene so interested readers could see for themselves. Some actually slowed down the video at the pertinent hand-swat mark — it was only a simple second, after all — as a helpful tool to really Get To The Truth Of The Matter.
God forbid the media report, say, on the friendly relations between Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — the friendly relations that in the minds of the left shouldn’t have been because, after all, Trump just gave away Israeli intelligence secrets to the Russians in a White House meeting, right?
Hmm, curious how very happy the two leaders seemed in each others’ presence during their meet-and-greet — but of course, the media’s attention was diverted by a much bigger and better story.
Melania hates her husband. She must; why else the hand swat?
It wasn’t long before the psychological profiles emerged to suggest just that. And then came the gift of all gifts for an anti-Trump media: Melania seemed to do it again.
Yahoo!Style, in its piece “Does Melania Trump Really Not Want to Hold Her Husband’s Hand?” wrote of this startling occurrence: “While walking down the steps of Air Force One onto the tarmac at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino International Airport Tuesday night, the president attempted to hold his wife’s hand at the exact moment she reached up to adjust flyaway strands of hair. The president’s hand hung in the air with uncertainty before he placed it on his wife’s behind.”
Stop the presses. The media, followed quickly by social media did indeed take notice — and the speculation once again flew fast and furious.
People blasted: “Oops She Did It Again! Did Melania Trump Reject Donald’s Attempt to Hold Her Hand For a Second Time?”
One Twitter poster wrote: “Melania Trump with the casual ’NOPE. Still not touching you’ move.”
Another: “I’m no fan of Melania Trump, but I have to admit that her instinctual, keep-walking-and-look-straight-ahead hand swat was killer.”
And another: “It’s about time she had some cold ice behavior and well deserved. He walks away all the time! He’s not a gentleman.”
And then came the second round of psychological assessments.
“There seems to be significant strain in their marriage,” said Susan Constantine, a body language expert who spoke to Yahoo.
You know, there’s a principle in life that says you get what you look for — you get what you seek. If the media wants to hone in with laser focus on the hands of Melania and look for whatever move may or may not have occurred as a means of determining the behind-scenes feelings of the first lady toward her husband, then the media — the anti-Trump media, remember — will find the negative conclusion it wants. And it very much looks like it has.
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