In 2008 National Review ran Mark Steyn’s story on Michelle Obama with a classic cover and the headline “Mrs. Grievance.” In 2020 NR’s Kyle Smith followed up in “What Does Michelle Obama Have to Complain About?” In 2025 Mrs. Obama is still providing raw material:
How do you raise kids in the White House? It’s dangerous. As the first black potential president, we knew there would be death threats. There were just all the — how would we afford it? Because it’s, it’s expensive to live in the White House! As many people don’t know, I mean, much is not covered. You’re paying for every food — every bit of food that you eat. You know, you’re not paying for housing and the staff in it, but everything, even travel if you’re not traveling with the president if your kids are coming on a Bright Star, which is the first lady’s plane — we had to pay for their travel to be on the plane. It is an expensive proposition, and you’re running for two years, and not earning an income. So, all of that was in my mind. How would we manage this?
NR’s Jim Geraghty extracts the quote of Mrs. Obama from a podcast hosted by British entrepreneur Steven Bartlett (cued up here) and places it in the context of “her fears when her husband chose to run for president…”
