As former President Donald Trump, 76, turned himself in for arrest on Tuesday in Miami, the idea that his wife Melania Trump, 52, would fail to show up for his latest arraignment was apparently unthinkable. Fox News anchor John Roberts mistook Trump’s beautiful assistant Margo Martin, 27, for the former First Lady in video you can see below. “We have some video that we want to play out here, Melania Trump entering the courthouse just a short time ago,” John said on the air on Tuesday, June 13, narrating what he thought was video of Melania arriving at the Miami courthouse to support her husband amid the classified documents case.
Fox News showed Melania* at the courthouse earlier, and for the first time, I found myself starting to believe the Melania body double conspiracies.
Surprise twist: It was not Melania* pic.twitter.com/K4x7s55tTy
— Lis Power (@LisPower1) June 13, 2023
“There she is. Just out of the vehicle and now going toward the courthouse,” he continued. It only took several minutes for the conservative network anchor to walk back the comments and inform viewers that the video wasn’t actually of Melania, but of Margo. He apologized on the air, in a second video clip, also viewable above. “So we just want to clarify something,” he later explained. “We thought that was Melania Trump who was arriving, apparently it was not Melania, apologies for that. But a day like today, with so many comings and goings, it’s easy from a distance to mistake two people.” The gaffe quickly went viral via social media.
@johnrobertsFox @SandraSmithFox @FoxNews This is not Melania, this is Trump’s assistant Margo Martin. pic.twitter.com/TFt8DFEpek
— Joanne_Lopez_Dow🇺🇸 (@dow_lopez) June 13, 2023
It’s easy to see how the mistake was made. Video and screen captures from the big moment show Margo looking like a mirror image of Melania. She wore her long, light brown hair around her shoulders and rocked a stylish short sleeved business dress and chic sunglasses outside the courthouse. From a distance, she certainly resembled the former First Lady and mother of the former President’s youngest son, Barron Trump, 17.
Trump’s surrender for arrest comes just days after his June 8 indictment on federal charges of mishandling classified documents. During his arraignment at the federal courthouse, he pleaded “not guilty” to no fewer than 37 charges. In April, after the former commander in chief surrendered himself for an arraignment over a 2016 hush money payment to adult industry star Stormy Daniels, he gave a belligerent speech at Mar-a-Lago — and Melania was nowhere to be seen there, either.
A month later in May, Trump notably failed to mention his wife of 18 years in a bizarre Mother’s Day tribute via social media.