After hosts of “The View” speculated that Melania Trump was using a body double, a spokeswoman for the first lady criticized the ABC show for peddling “shameful” conspiracy theories.
Stephanie Grisham, said President Trump and the first lady “traveled to Alabama to pay their respects & comfort victims of the tornado devastation.”
“In typical fashion, @theview chooses to laugh in the face of tragedy. Shameful,” she wrote on Twitter in response to a tweet from the show.
“The internet is buzzing again with theories that First Lady Melania Trump is using an imposter to stand in for her—the co-hosts investigate,” the show wrote on the social media website, including a video.
On “The View, co-host Joy Behar, a noted Trump critic, claimed, “Some people think the first lady is using an impostor,” referring to conspiracy theories being circulated on Twitter with the hashtag #FakeMelania.
The ABC News show then showed tweets where people speculated that she is using a body double.
“I wasn’t going to go along with this but that one, in that picture, doesn’t look like her,” Behar said. “It’s a different shaped face.”
Sunny Hostin, another “View” co-host, then disclosed she spent about an hour looking over Internet rumors and conspiracy theories about an alleged body double.
“Melania is a very tall, statuesque woman and the one that we saw, the first one that we showed, she looks kind of short,” Hostin said. “Look how short she looks.”
CNN’s Ana Navarro, another Trump critic who sometimes appears on the program, said the theory was “absurd” but still urged viewers to partake in speculating about it.
“If you have not gone to hashtag #FakeMelania, you must go see those memes,” Navarro said.
On social media, “The View” was blasted by fellow Twitter users.
“The tragedy of this storm has broken many hearts ... yet you sit there, trying to figure out if Melania was real or fake. How about sending some love to the people in that community,” wrote one person on Twitter.
Alabama Damage
In Alabama, Trump surveyed the damage wrought by a tornado.“FEMA has been told directly by me to give the A Plus treatment to the Great State of Alabama and the wonderful people who have been so devastated by the Tornadoes. @GovernorKayIvey, one of the best in our Country, has been so informed. She is working closely with FEMA (and me!),” he tweeted.
