There are many questions surrounding the White House these days, but at least one has been solved this week.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama gave her first televised interview since leaving 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on daytime talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show this week. Preview clips of the interview highlight that DeGeneres asks Obama about a particular gift she received from the current First Lady, Melania Trump, on Inauguration Day 2017.
Remember that large, squarish, signature robin’s egg blue Tiffany & Co box (TIF) that Trump bestowed to Obama on the steps of the White House North Portico last January? Maybe you saw a few memes about it—maybe something like these?
https://twitter.com/hollynichole730/status/823972962441293825
Finally we know what Melania Trump gave Michelle Obama in that blue Tiffany box. pic.twitter.com/fhPpvUtzAw
— James (@jamz133) January 25, 2017
https://twitter.com/MrsWordsOfWisd1/status/824639338327601153
https://twitter.com/soft_sass/status/915587768599711744
The joke (and the mystery) is apparently still alive one year later:
One year tomorrow since @MichelleObama made this iconic face – quite possibly the least impressed anybody has ever been receiving a Tiffany box #OneYearInOffice pic.twitter.com/MYr5jWMJqL
— Lucy McKinstry (@LuluMcKinstry) January 19, 2018
Maybe you, too, also wondered what was inside the box. Wonder no longer.
“It was a lovely frame,” Obama told DeGeneres. Obama went into further detail about meeting, hinting it might have been more awkward than it looked. (Even after how now-President Donald Trump went up to greet the Obamas, leaving Melania behind to walk up by herself while carrying the gift box.) Obama described the meeting between the outgoing and incoming First Families as similar to a state visit, with a number of protocols to follow—but it seems there wasn’t much prep for a gift exchange.
Obama’s interview on Ellen will air on Thursday. Check local listings for network and showtimes.