Donald Trump has revealed that his wife hates his trademark dance and shames him by saying that former president Franklin Delano Roosevelt—who was wheelchair bound—would never do such a thing.
The president gave the bizarre anecdote during a meandering 90-minute speech at the House GOP’s retreat on Tuesday. He ranted about everything from the media coverage of his health to his fears about being impeached if Democrats win the midterms.
But about 25 minutes into the address, the 79-year-old brought up his famous “Trump dance” and First Lady Melania Trump’s disdain for it.
“My wife hates when I do this,” Trump said of his signature move, which he usually busts out at the end of events and campaign rallies.
“You know, she’s a very classy person, right? She said: ‘It’s so unpresidential.’ I said: ‘But I did become president… Everybody wants me to dance.
“She actually said, could you imagine FDR dancing?” Trump continued, as the audience laughed uncomfortably.
“She said that to me. And I said, there’s a long history that perhaps she doesn’t know.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving in office from 1933 until his death in 1945.
Many viewed him as a hero for guiding America through the Great Depression with the New Deal, establishing social safety nets like Social Security, and leading the Allies to victory in World War II.
But in 1921, FDR was diagnosed with polio, which left him permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
Determined to pursue his political career, he convinced many people that he was improving, teaching himself to walk short distances while wearing iron braces on his hips and legs and making sure he was not seen publicly using his wheelchair.
To that end, the first lady may not have been aware of his affliction when she made the remark to Trump, who described FDR as “an elegant fellow, even as a Democrat.”
Trump’s dance typically involves the president slowly punching the air to the Village People’s gay anthem, YMCA.
Football players such as Brock Bowers of the Las Vegas Raiders and Nick Bosa of the San Francisco 49ers have all been spotted imitating the moves, as has UFC champion Jon Jones, who performed the dance after winning a fight attended by the president.
But Trump is not always a fan of other world leaders dancing, with the president reportedly ordering the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro after the dictator’s dancing tipped him to breaking point.
According to The New York Times, the final straw came when Maduro stood up to dance to an electronic remix of his own speech, “No War, Yes Peace,” while at the opening of the International School for Women’s Leadership in Maracay, northern Venezuela, in late December.
Two sources told the Times that Trump viewed Maduro’s dancing as “mocking” the U.S., which had days earlier carried out a strike on a dock in Venezuela that the president said was for drug trafficking.
Speaking at the rebranded Trump-Kennedy Center in Washington on Tuesday, the president mocked Maduro for “trying to imitate my dance.”
“He gets up there and he tries to imitate my dance a little bit, but he’s a violent guy, and he’s killed millions of people. He’s tortured—they have a torture chamber in the middle of Caracas that they’re closing up,” Trump told House Republicans.
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