Melania Trump once forced the White House’s Easter Bunny into a last-minute wardrobe change, reportedly making the holiday figure “strip” in order to fix a perceived fashion snafu.
In her tell-all “I’ll Take Your Questions Now,” released this week, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham recalls Trump being fixated on hosting the 2017 Easter Egg Roll at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., which traditionally draws thousands of families to the South Lawn.
“Paying attention to every single detail, she even scrutinized the Easter bunny,” Grisham writes of the then-first lady, a former model.
“Just as the guy in the costume was about to go onto the balcony to wave to the kids, a frown crossed the first lady’s face,” says Grisham’s book.
“I don’t like what he is wearing,” Trump said, eyeing a plaid vest the life-sized hare was sporting.
“She felt it was tacky and distracting,” Grisham recounts.
“Then and there, only minutes before he was to hop out onto the White House lawn, Melania Trump made the Easter bunny strip,” according to Grisham.
News outlets at the time noted the absence of the Easter Bunny’s vest, worn in some previous appearances at the White House’s springtime bash.
While the plaid number may not have been a hit with Trump, it made a comeback last year for the first Easter Egg Roll of the Biden administration.
In 2020, the Easter Bunny could be seen wearing a non-plaid, maroon vest and a face mask, amid the coronavirus pandemic.