Brigitte Macron: 'Charming' Melania 'Cannot Do Anything'

After three days spent in Washington, DC, France's "first lady" (she doesn't officially hold that title, notes Newsweek) was asked by Le Monde about her experience with the American who fills those shoes, and the Guardian has Brigitte Macron's comments. She described an "actually really fun" woman who shares her sense of humor. "We laugh a lot together," she says of Melania Trump. In fact, "she laughs very easily, at everything, but shows it less than I do." The AFP notes the two met for the first time in France, in July.

But Macron noted the "charming, intelligent, and very open" Trump has it pretty tough. She "cannot do anything. She can’t even open a window at the White House. She can’t go outside. She’s much more constrained than I am. I go out every day in Paris." The AFP's takeaway from the interview: That Macron "heaped praise" on Trump. The BBC points out that the age difference between Macron and husband Emmanuel Macron is the roughly same as that of Melania Trump and the US president, just in reverse. Their ages are 65 and and 40, and 48 and 71, respectively. (Melania won praise in the wake of this week's state dinner.)