--- title: Jimmy Kimmel Has a Theory About Melania Trump's Trip description: First Lady Melania Trump just completed her first solo tour of Africa, and Jimmy Kimmel has a theory about how her mood has improved. canonical: https://time.com/5419395/jimmy-kimmel-melania-trump/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-09T15:17:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:55:21.512Z og:title: Jimmy Kimmel Has a Theory About Melania Trump's Trip og:description: It's all about the First Lady's smile og:url: https://time.com/5419395/jimmy-kimmel-melania-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd85941c052950c6/69893c22929fadc81cbf1c93/melania-trump-malawi.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: MALAWI-US-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jimmy Kimmel Has a Theory About Melania Trump's Trip twitter:description: It's all about the First Lady's smile twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd85941c052950c6/69893c22929fadc81cbf1c93/melania-trump-malawi.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jimmy Kimmel Made a Video to Support His Theory About Melania Trump's Trip  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 9, 2018 3:17 PM UTC  US First Lady Melania Trump waves as she disembarks from her military airplane upon arrival at Lilongwe International Airport October 4, 2018 for a 1-day visit in Malawi, part of her week long trip to Africa to promote her 'Be Best' campaign. US First Lady Melania Trump waves as she disembarks from her military airplane upon arrival at Lilongwe International Airport October 4, 2018 for a 1-day visit in Malawi, part of her week long trip to Africa to promote her 'Be Best' campaign.SAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 9, 2018 3:17 PM UTC First Lady [Melania Trump](http://time.com/5417711/melania-trump-says-kavanaugh-highly-qualified/) just completed her [first solo excursion](http://time.com/5416558/melania-trump-dances-kenya-orphans/) in a political capacity, touring Africa for five days and stopping by hospitals and orphanages, hanging out [with elephants](http://time.com/5416967/melania-trump-elephant/) and visiting famous sites like the Sphinx and the Pyramids on her journey. And while plenty of attention has been paid to both her ongoing promotion of her [‘Be Best’ campaign](http://time.com/5412767/melania-trump-be-best-blankets/) and her [fashion choices](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/fashion/melania-trump-africa-trip-fashion-fedora.html) for the jaunt, Jimmy Kimmel wants to focus on something different: her facial expressions. Kimmel drew a sharp contrast between the First Lady’s seemingly joyful spirit while photographed and videoed during her public engagements in Egypt, Ghana, Malawi and Kenya in comparison to clips of her taken while back in the U.S. at the side of her husband President Donald Trump for a spoof. “This is Melania’s first trip overseas, and she really seemed to enjoy herself,” Kimmel suggested. “It’s not scientific, but draw your own conclusion.” (They added in some ominous Star Wars music for effect to really draw out the stark difference between her U.S. self versus her cheerful African tourist self.) Now that she is back on U.S. ground. Here’s Kimmel’s spoof below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5419395/jimmy-kimmel-melania-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5419395/jimmy-kimmel-melania-trump/"},"headline":"Jimmy Kimmel Made a Video to Support His Theory About Melania Trump's Trip","datePublished":"2018-10-09T15:17:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:55:21.512Z","description":"It's all about her smile","url":"https://time.com/5419395/jimmy-kimmel-melania-trump/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Late Night Television","Melania Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd85941c052950c6/69893c22929fadc81cbf1c93/melania-trump-malawi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfd85941c052950c6/69893c22929fadc81cbf1c93/melania-trump-malawi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MALAWI-US-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY","caption":"MALAWI-US-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY","creditText":"SAUL LOEB—AFP/Getty Images","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/5419395/jimmy-kimmel-melania-trump/","name":"Jimmy Kimmel Made a Video to Support His Theory About Melania Trump's Trip"}}]}] ```