--- title: Stephen Colbert Hosts Christmas Melania Trump Impression description: Laura Benanti plays Melania Trump in this pitch perfect parody on The Late Show canonical: https://time.com/5044868/melania-trump-christmas-colbert/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-01T16:10:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:49:00.375Z og:title: "Melania Trump" Tries to Escape the White House on Colbert og:description: Laura Benanti reprises her impression of Melania Trump on The Late Show og:url: https://time.com/5044868/melania-trump-christmas-colbert/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2025e76552e8fff3/6988f357cf40a87b55c4a6cb/melaniatrump.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: melaniatrump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: "Melania Trump" Tries to Escape the White House on Colbert twitter:description: Laura Benanti reprises her impression of Melania Trump on The Late Show twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2025e76552e8fff3/6988f357cf40a87b55c4a6cb/melaniatrump.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Melania Trump' Tries to Escape the Christmasy White House on Stephen Colbert by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Dec 1, 2017 4:10 PM UTC  by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Dec 1, 2017 4:10 PM UTC Stephen Colbert welcomed “[Melania Trump](http://time.com/4972038/melania-trump-fashion-photo-gallery/?iid=sr-link4)” to _The Late Show_ on Thursday night to help spread a little holiday cheer. While it was technically Broadway star Laura Benanti reprising her satirical impression of the First Lady, Colbert wanted to make her comfortable. “I want you to feel like _The Late Show_ is your home,” Colbert said. “Aw,” said Benanti as Melania. “Can I move in here?” Colbert quickly recanted her request, though, and when Colbert asked fake-[Melania](http://time.com/4951075/melania-trump-united-nations-children-bullying-cyberbullying/?iid=sr-link4) if the Melania was unhappy in role as First Lady, she took a page from her husband’s playbook and decried it as fake news. “Stephen, this is a fake news lie! I am very happy to be First Lady,” she said as she struggled to keep a smile on her face, “Look at me—being happy!” She then reminded Colbert of all the hard work she put in to [decorating the White House](http://time.com/5039367/melania-trump-white-house-christmas-decorations-meme/?iid=sr-link1) for the holiday season. “More proof of my happiness is how much [I love to decorate](http://time.com/5038040/trump-white-house-christmas-decorations-2017/?iid=sr-link2)!” she insisted. “It’s all so merry: the stringing of the lights; the baking of the cookies; and Santa Claus, such an inspiration to me . . . If you can come down a chimney to get _into_ a house, then you can go _up_ a chimney to get out of a house.” Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5044868/melania-trump-christmas-colbert/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5044868/melania-trump-christmas-colbert/"},"headline":"'Melania Trump' Tries to Escape the Christmasy White House on Stephen Colbert","datePublished":"2017-12-01T16:10:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:49:00.375Z","description":"Laura Benanti plays Melania Trump in this pitch perfect parody on The Late Show","url":"https://time.com/5044868/melania-trump-christmas-colbert/","keywords":["Newsfeed","stephen colbert","the late show","Late Night Television","Melania Trump","Late Night Comedy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2025e76552e8fff3/6988f357cf40a87b55c4a6cb/melaniatrump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2025e76552e8fff3/6988f357cf40a87b55c4a6cb/melaniatrump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"melaniatrump","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5044868/melania-trump-christmas-colbert/","name":"'Melania Trump' Tries to Escape the Christmasy White House on Stephen Colbert"}}]}] ```