Unhand this old Trump marriage trope

Desperate anti-Trumpers fell back on an old favorite this week, claiming that the president’s marriage is in trouble because the first lady was spotted refusing to hold her husband’s hand.

A viral video shows Melania Trump and the president stepping off Air Force One on Sunday after a weekend at the Trump golf course in New Jersey.

They are holding hands at the top of the aircraft stairs, but it is windy and her dress billows up. Melania needs one hand to hold the railing and the other to press her wide Birkin bag against her skirt to preserve her modesty as she navigates the stairs in high heels.

The president, like most husbands in that situation, is clueless. He nudges her hand a couple of times with his fingers, to no avail. There is literally nothing acrimonious or remarkable about the 25-second scene. It would be familiar to any married couple, with the wife intent on avoiding a wardrobe malfunction while the husband is oblivious.

Yet deceptive headlines describe the occasion as “Melania repeatedly refuses to hold Trump’s hand in frosty exchange,” and armchair body-language experts opined that Melania hates Donald.

The commentary was a continuation of the four-year campaign to disparage the first lady, mock her marriage and dislodge her family from the White House. But the haters should have realized by now that no amount of mean-girl taunts will turn Melania into the undercover resistance operative of their dreams.