Sad Birthday to You, Melania!

For Melania Trump’s birthday, the White House tweeted a photo of the First Lady sitting alone in the White House. Was that really necessary?

Did she deserve that? The American first lady’s birthday is April 26 and the White House congratulated her on Twitter with a photo that showed Melania Trump sitting alone on a sofa, surrounded by photographers and journalists — who pay no attention to her, instead apparently directing their microphones and cameras toward someone out of view.

Melania Trump may look spick and span, as always, but it’s not exactly a pretty birthday photo: Melania, alone among strangers. Even on her birthday. Melania, forever unappreciated. Melania, sad birthday to you!

One wonders what the White House press office was thinking in choosing this photo, for her birthday no less. What is this picture supposed to tell us? This is life at the side of the powerful, honey. You sit neatly clad in a green dress, surrounded by yellow flowers, but nobody cares, because your husband is more important? Or maybe, this is what a really, really sad birthday of a terribly lonely woman looks like, people! She happens to be married to the American president, so we have to tweet a photo of her, but we don’t actually give a damn about her or her loneliness?

Or, look, Melania is so zen that no matter what happens, she sits there, immaculate, and doesn’t let anything ruffle her, including the fact that she’s being ignored on her birthday and is alone, all on her lonesome, and abandoned? Maybe the photo is even a discreet reminder to her husband for whom her birthday would otherwise have slid by unnoticed — scheduling conflicts, etc. Can’t exactly yell that through the White House: Donald, you forgot something, ahem! Better to send a tweet that he doesn’t appear in. Maybe he’s even making a quick run to get flowers.

One thing’s for sure: the photo is an invitation to Photoshop-savvy Twitter users to have a heyday. Such an empty sofa next to the first lady, who on her birthday of all days has to lounge around as a sad blur of color in an empty (except for the dozens of camera people), cold White House, can’t escape unscathed. A TV-gawking Donald has to be placed next to her, or a Vladimir Putin leaning against the back, or even an attendant who’s touching up Melania’s makeup.

Melania also received many other expressions of condolence. “I feel so sorry for her,” for example, or “Even Melania deserves better.” Twitter users agree that the image of the lonely first lady of the United States on her apparently not so excessively celebrated birthday is sad, just sad.