It was all smiles as Donald Trump stood between his wife Melania and the Easter Bunny on the White House’s south balcony and spoke of “bringing religion back to America”.
Later, they held hands and blew the starting whistle on the 2025 Easter Egg Roll, a traditional day of family fun where kids race souvenir eggs along the grass with a long spoon.
President Donald Trump, the first lady and the Easter Bunny at the annual egg roll at the White House.Credit: AP
The first lady read from a children’s book, Bunny With a Big Heart, though many of the assembled youngsters clearly found her thick Slovenian accent difficult to understand.
The president waved, smiled, posed for photos, performed the Trump dance and looked at children’s drawings. He even gave a couple some marital advice: “Make sure you like each other.”
It’s the sort of day that’s manna from PR heaven. And despite his awkwardness with kids – who could forget him asking a seven-year-old: “Are you still a believer in Santa? Because at seven its marginal, right?” – one of Trump’s strengths as a politician is his aura of fun. Whether it’s the unfiltered nature of what he says, his odd fixations or his fondness for camp, Trump has brought politics out of the boring column for many Americans and onlookers.
But as much as Trump projects that relaxed, carefree, everything-is-better-than-it-has-ever-been image, not all is well in the White House.
Melania Trump reads from the children’s book Bunny With a Big Heart at the White House Easter Egg Roll.Credit: AP
The revelation that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth was involved in a second group chat on the encrypted phone app Signal, in which he again shared sensitive details about an imminent military operation against Houthi rebels in Yemen, should put him on the endangered species list.
Although Trump and his team were spinning the report as old news, it is, in many ways, worse for Hegseth this time around. He did not create the first Signal group, and was not the one who mistakenly added a high-profile journalist to the chat. But this newly revealed group was started by Hegseth, and included his wife, brother and personal lawyer.
