Trump Goes After Michelle Obama: ‘All She Wants To Do Is Campaign’

During his rally in Fletcher, North Carolina, on Friday, Donald Trump claimed that Michelle Obama’s 2007 line about not being able to run the White House if you can’t run your own house was a dig at Hillary Clinton, even though the Obamas have denied that was the case.

“We have a president, all he wants to do is campaign. His wife, all she wants to do is campaign. And I see how much his wife likes Hillary,” Trump said. “But wasn’t she the one that originally started the statement, if you can’t take care of your home — right? — you can’t take care of the White House or the country.”

“Where is that? I don’t hear that. I don’t hear that. She’s the one that started that. I said, ‘We can’t say that, it’s too vicious.’ Can you believe it? I said that,” he continued. “They said, well Michele Obama said it. I said she did? Now she said that, but we don’t hear about that.”

In August 2007, Michelle Obama did say, “If you can’t run your own house, you can’t run the White House.” Some suggested that it may have been a dig at Hillary Clinton and her husband’s affairs, and the line gained attention when it was picked up by the Drudge Report.

But both Michelle and Barack Obama denied that the line referenced Hillary Clinton.

Michelle Obama used a similar line at another campaign event that month that provides further context for her remark.

“So our view was that, if you can’t run your own house, you certainly can’t run the White House. So, so we’ve adjusted our schedules to make sure that our girls are first, so while he’s traveling around, I do day trips,” she said.