Michelle Obama firmly believes in turning the other cheek and striving to be the better person in confrontational situations, which is quite a feat when it comes to life in Washington, D.C. Still, it doesn’t mean that Michelle is totally averse to getting shady from time to time — and when she does, it’s pretty epic.
Michelle showed off her salty side when she gave some not-so-subtle digs at Donald Trump during her 2016 DNC speech. The former FLOTUS explained how she and Barack Obama encouraged their daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama, to rise above the political dirt. “We urge them to ignore those who question their father’s citizenship or faith,” Michelle said. “We explain when someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don’t stoop to their level,” she continued. “No, our motto is ‘when they go low, we go high.’
Michelle explained her ethos in a November 2022 “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” appearance. “For me, going high is not losing the urgency or the passion or the rage, especially when you are justified in it,” Michelle said. “If going low worked, we’d do it,” she continued. “It might be a ‘quick fix,’ but it doesn’t fix anything over the long term.” Michelle chooses to adhere to carefully crafted jibes and stealth snarks instead of bombastic rage and incendiary rhetoric. However, that doesn’t take the stings out of Michelle’s zings.
First spouses, they’re just like us! Michelle and Barack Obama’s relationship is total #CouplesGoals. However, it hasn’t always been that way. In fact, the first decade of their marriage was an uphill struggle, just like many mere mortals’ romances. Michelle got candid about her and Barack’s relationship woes during a December 2022 Revolt TV panel. “People think I’m being catty saying this. It’s like, there were 10 years where I couldn’t stand my husband,” she admitted. “And guess when it happened? When those kids were little.”
Michelle said she felt Barack wasn’t pulling his weight, managing to jet off on work trips and partake in rounds of golf but unable to fit any quality family time into his packed schedule. Meanwhile, she was left to balance the demands of home life, child care, and a burgeoning career. “For 10 years, while we’re trying to build our careers and, you know, worrying about school and who’s doing what and what, I was like, ‘Ugh, this isn’t even,'” Michelle shared, conceding that “marriage isn’t 50/50 — ever.” Still, Michelle admitted that overall, the good times definitely outweigh the bad in the long run.
“If I fell out with him for 10, and we had [a] great 20 years, I’d take those odds anytime,” she told Gayle King in an April 2023 “CBS Morning” interview, explaining it’s impractical to like “everybody every day.”
In her 2018 memoir, “Becoming,” Michelle Obama said she could never forgive Donald Trump for placing her family in danger. She slammed him for hatching the birther conspiracy theory and whipping up supporters into a frenzy of xenophobia, questioning, “What if someone with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to Washington? What if that person went looking for our girls?”
Michelle’s still unforgiving of Trump to this day. She took a not-so-subtle dig at 45 in a January 2024 episode of Jay Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast. When asked what keeps her up at night, Michelle said it’s terror over the potential outcome of the 2024 election and the destruction of modern democracy. “What’s going to happen in this next election? I’m terrified about what could possibly happen because our leaders matter,” Michelle shared. “Who we elect, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit, it affects us in ways sometimes I think people take for granted.”
The former FLOTUS threw some serious stealth shade at the bullying pulpit in July 2019. After Trump slammed Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, referring to his Baltimore district as a “disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess,” Michelle went higher. “On #NationalDanceDay, I’m shouting out the Lethal Ladies, a Baltimore STEP team who I saw perform back in 2017. I’m so proud of you all — and everyone who’s dancing today!” she posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, just hours later.
