--- title: Michelle Obama: 'No Sympathy' for the Spouses of Candidates description: First Lady Michelle Obama said Tuesday that she has "no sympathy" for the spouses of presidential candidates, including Melania Trump canonical: https://time.com/4502562/michelle-obama-melania-trump-presidential-spouses/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-21T14:18:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:35.473Z article:section: Politics og:title: Michelle Obama Has 'No Sympathy' for Spouses of Presidential Candidates og:description: Including Melania Trump og:url: https://time.com/4502562/michelle-obama-melania-trump-presidential-spouses/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fb73a2af14a2091/6988a6f4fb4eac1e7a88f320/michelle-obama-melania-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3916 og:image:height: 2203 og:image:alt: First Lady Michelle Obama Hosts Event For Spouses Of Government Leaders During UN General Assembly og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Michelle Obama Has 'No Sympathy' for Spouses of Presidential Candidates twitter:description: Including Melania Trump twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fb73a2af14a2091/6988a6f4fb4eac1e7a88f320/michelle-obama-melania-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Michelle Obama Has 'No Sympathy' for Spouses of Presidential Candidates > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Sep 21, 2016 2:18 PM UTC  First Lady Michelle Obama greets fellow first ladies, students and guests at Broadway's Jacobs Theater on Sept. 19, 2016 in New York City. First Lady Michelle Obama greets fellow first ladies, students and guests at Broadway's Jacobs Theater on Sept. 19, 2016 in New York City. John Moore—Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Sep 21, 2016 2:18 PM UTC First Lady Michelle Obama said Tuesday that she has “no sympathy” for the spouses of presidential candidates, including Melania Trump, whose July speech at the Republican National Convention [plagiarized parts of Obama’s 2008 address](http://time.com/4412175/republican-convention-melania-trump-michelle-obama/?iid=sr-link1). Asked in an interview on _The Late Show with Stephen Colbert_ if she has any sympathy for people who have to “go along with” what their political spouses do while running for president, Obama said she doesn’t. “Bottom line is: If I didn’t agree with what Barack was saying, I would not support his run. So I stand there proudly, and I hope they are too—standing with their spouses proudly,” she said. “So no sympathy.” Asked more specifically if she has any sympathy for Melania Trump, given that her [convention speech](http://time.com/4412083/republican-convention-melania-trump/?iid=sr-link2) was written by [Trump staffers](http://time.com/4415101/melania-trump-speech-meredith-mciver-rnc/), Obama offered a slight smirk. “Yeah, that was tough,” she said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4502562/michelle-obama-melania-trump-presidential-spouses/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4502562/michelle-obama-melania-trump-presidential-spouses/"},"headline":"Michelle Obama Has 'No Sympathy' for Spouses of Presidential Candidates","datePublished":"2016-09-21T14:18:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:35.473Z","description":"\"If I didn't agree with what Barack was saying, I would not support his run\"","url":"https://time.com/4502562/michelle-obama-melania-trump-presidential-spouses/","keywords":["2016 Election","Television","Michelle Obama","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fb73a2af14a2091/6988a6f4fb4eac1e7a88f320/michelle-obama-melania-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5fb73a2af14a2091/6988a6f4fb4eac1e7a88f320/michelle-obama-melania-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"First Lady Michelle Obama Hosts Event For Spouses Of Government Leaders During UN General Assembly","caption":"First Lady Michelle Obama Hosts Event For Spouses Of Government Leaders During UN General Assembly","creditText":"John Moore—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":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4502562/michelle-obama-melania-trump-presidential-spouses/","name":"Michelle Obama Has 'No Sympathy' for Spouses of Presidential Candidates"}}]}] ```