A Washington Post columnist is catching heat for suggesting that first lady Melania Trump might be sending "coded messages" through her clothing choices.
The story, which appeared on the paper's website Thursday, references an upcoming — and unauthorized — biography of the first lady titled "Free, Melania" by CNN's Kate Bennett. Post columnist Monica Hesse wondered whether Trump is trying to communicate to the world outside of the White House bubble without using spoken words.
"Is Melania Trump sending coded messages, or are we just talking to ourselves?" the story's headline reads.
Hesse wrote, "I have wondered whether Melania Trump is a genius. I have wondered whether she's an idiot. I have wondered why I wonder about her at all. I am grateful this is Kate Bennett's task, not mine, and Bennett comes down believing that Melania is an independent thinker and a wickedly intelligent operator: pragmatic, confident, warmer than she often appears and excellent with children.
"I would like Melania Trump to mean something. I would like for her to mean something in the way that we would all like any of this chaotic era to mean anything, because the alternative is that we're just living in chaos, in a country led by chaotic people."
Reaction to Hesse's story on social media was swift, as Fox News noted.
Washington Examiner Magazine executive editor Seth Mandel tweeted, "r u ok."
Jessica Fletcher of The Daily Wire asked, "Is everyone there doing ok?"
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