NBC “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon devoted much of his Monday monologue to jokes about President Trump’s marriage, seizing on first lady Melania Trump’s nearly monthlong absence from public view to speculate she had run off with former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Mr. Fallon opened by joking that Mrs. Trump had been staying out of the spotlight and had not been seen in public for 29 days. He then joked that Mr. Trump, on hearing the complaint, replied that he “hasn’t seen her in private for two years,” a line that drew loud laughter and cheers from the studio audience.
The host went on to joke that Mrs. Trump was staying out of the spotlight to avoid being trapped with her husband inside an airport catering truck, a reference to reports that Mr. Trump was secretly moved via catering truck to a separate military aircraft while an older Air Force One flew on as a decoy, in a security maneuver prompted by an assassination threat from Iran during his departure from a NATO summit in Turkey last month. Mr. Fallon closed the bit by telling the crowd, “…No one has seen Melania. All I know is that it’s going to be crazy when we find out she ran off with Mitch McConnell.”
The McConnell reference doubled as a callback to the Kentucky Republican’s own extended absence from the Senate. Mr. McConnell was hospitalized in mid-June after a fall that left him briefly unconscious, and though he has since been discharged from a rehabilitation center, he has yet to return to Capitol Hill.
Mr. Fallon’s jokes landed the same day Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia drew fire for invoking Mr. Trump’s executive assistant, Natalie Harp, during a campaign rally, accusing the president of preferring to travel with Natalie on his refurbished aircraft rather than attend to his duties. Mr. Ossoff did not explicitly allege an affair, but the remark set off online speculation to that effect and drew a sharp response from the White House, with communications director Steven Cheung branding the senator a “cuck loser” on X. Mr. Trump dismissed the criticism, comparing Mr. Ossoff to Pee-wee Herman.
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