Trump's Pet Name For Melania Proves How Self-Absorbed He Really Is

It seems like there's a new story every day adding more fodder to the theory that President Donald Trump and his longtime wife, Melania Trump, don't have a great relationship. Between the Trumps sticking rigidly to outdated gender roles at home and Donald subtly confirming his marriage to Melania is a mess behind closed doors, it shouldn't be a massive surprise to learn that the divisive politician's pet name for his wife won't be making it into a Hallmark movie any time soon.

While in Iowa speaking at the Salute to America event, in July 2025, Donald overshared by proudly telling the audience his pet name for Melania. "I call her 'First Lady,' isn't it terrible?" he quipped. "I'm saying 'Good night, First Lady, my darling,' because it reminds me that I'm president, that's why," (via the Daily Beast). First of all, not one person in the audience (or the person writing this article) needed to know what Donald called Melania behind closed doors. Second, ew.

The only reason Melania is the first lady is because her husband is the president; it's not like she had to spend months campaigning for her own position. It goes with the territory when your spouse takes office. If it was something the former model had earned on her own merits, and worked hard for, that's one thing. But this is just yet another way Donald loves to flaunt his blockbuster ego.

As far as monikers go, at least the one he uses for his wife isn't nearly as bad as some of the truly wild nicknames Donald Trump has made up for his opponents. The outspoken former "Apprentice" host can't go five minutes talking about Former President Joe Biden without calling him some kind of derogatory name, including "Sleepy Joe" and "Crooked Joe," to name just two. In fact, Trump isn't even that creative when it comes to his insults; he'll reuse, renew, and recycle them to fit whoever he's insulting at the time. For instance, the divisive politician called his one-time rival for the presidency, Hillary Clinton, "Crooked Hillary" as well as "Lyin' Hillary" while they were battling for the highest office in the land. He originally called Senator Ted Cruz "Lyin' Ted," but eventually stopped and reassigned the offensive moniker to his opponent back in 2016 instead. 

Staying true to form, Trump later bestowed the same nickname upon Kamala Harris, his 2024 Democratic rival for the presidency, calling her "Lyin' Kamala Harris" (and, at one point, rather confusingly, "Kamabla"). While the first lady's pet name isn't exactly what we'd consider brutal, Trump does extend his love of mean nicknames to his inner circle too, including White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, whom he reportedly calls "Weird Stephen," which is just downright rude and further proves that Trump never graduated from lame playground insults. So, if you assumed that those close to the president were safe from cruel nicknames, well, guess again.