As election season heats up, Stephen Colbert is baffled by Melania Trump’s bizarre emphasis on her nude modeling past while her husband campaigns for president.
The former first lady posted a video to social media Wednesday morning, defending her former modeling work as she promotes her upcoming book.
“Why am I proud of my nude modeling work?” she asked in the clip posted to X and Instagram. “The more pressing question is: why did the media choose to scrutinize my celebration of the human form in a fashion shoot?”
https://t.co/ZCTwZSqZND pic.twitter.com/FH9SRFQeUR
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) September 18, 2024
Colbert expressed confusion during the opening monologue of “The Late Show” Wednesday, trying to translate his laughter.
“I’m sorry, what’s going on? Why are you asking that?” he said. “No one, absolutely no one is talking about your nude photos!”
“I know you have a new memoir coming out and you’re trying to get attention, but America is facing a much more pressing issue,” he continued.
The Emmy winner noted that her husband’s presidential campaign was struggling and “needed all the help it could get to stay on message these days” — then joked that Melania, who has been noticeably absent from the campaign, has finally “kicked the bucket.”[ing] with this video.
“Ah yeah, the thing that the media is definitely scrutinizing — Melania’s nude photoshoot 24 years ago on Trump’s plane,” Colbert said, referring to the nude photos of Melania on her then-boyfriend’s private jet in 2000.
Colbert, who also has a cookbook on shelves this month, said: “Melania’s courage in bringing out her old nudes, when no one was talking about them, inspired me to come up with my own exciting photoshoot.”
“It’s in my book, ‘Does It Taste Funny?’ that I wrote with my wife Eve,” he said, holding up the cookbook. “I want to warn everybody, if there are kids in the house, I want to warn you: It contains whole front feet. OK?”
