By Valerie Richardson - The Washington Times - Tuesday, November 27, 2018

In what has become an annual holiday tradition, first lady Melania Trump was needled Monday by the media for her decorations, in this case the crimson Christmas trees lining the White House East colonnade.

Slate roasted Mrs. Trump for “her red Christmas trees of death,” while The Washington Post called them “spooky” and Mashable ripped the “forest of blood-red trees.”

BuzzFeed News dubbed them the “merry cones of death,” adding that they “literally look like they’re dripping with blood.” Vanity Fair deemed the trees “menacing.”

Then there were the tweets comparing the 40 unadorned topiary trees to the red-clad women of Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

The barbs came a year after Mrs. Trump was scorched for decorating the hallway with planters of white trees branches, which the Daily Beast called “the most terrifying domestic space in America” and “Melania Trump’s nightmare before Christmas.”

“Last year, shadowy white branches stretched above Trump as if she was our Christmas heroine making her way through an eerie tunnel of witch’s knuckles on her way to a candy-cane forest,” Vanity Fair said. “This year, crimson red trees dotted a long hallway, dyed with what I assume is liberal blood a-boiling.”

The theme of this year’s decorations was “America’s Heritage,” and the color red was prominently featured in rooms like the Grand Foyer and Cross Hall, where 29 traditional green trees were decked with more than 14,000 red ornaments.

“The choice of red is an extension of the pales, or stripes, found in the presidential seal designed by our Founding Fathers,” said the White House press release. “It’s a symbol of valor and bravery.”

• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.

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