It was a over a bank holiday weekend in the US (due to Presidents' Day) that the Daily Mail, that bastion of groundbreaking journalism, published a pair of bombshell reports: Malia Obama, the 20-year-old daughter of former President Barack Obama, apparently has a secret Facebook page where she has expressed she isn't the biggest fan of current President Donald Trump and they published photos of her drinking a bottle of rosé in Miami, Florida.
A true national emergency!
On Malia's secret Facebook page, which hasn't been updated since 2017, there is a photo of a post-it note that reads "Donald Trump is evil," which the Mail found shocking enough to lead with in the headline. Has the FBI been notified of Malia's dislike for the man who spent eight years spreading the racist conspiracy theory that her dad was not born in the United States? The tabloid also published a series of extremely creepy paparazzi shots of Malia drinking Whispering Angel rosé wine and what appears to be a cocktail while relaxing poolside with some friends.
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All these stories prove to me is that Malia Obama is probably fun to hang out with (and that she maybe needs better friends who won't tip off the tabloids). When I was 20, I was certainly drinking in friends' dimly lit basements. I certainly wasn't enjoying Whispering Angel at five-star Miami resorts. Malia, a young woman of taste!
It should go without saying that the life of Malia Obama, who is not a public official, should be off limits. It's not the first time tabloids have intruded into the Harvard freshman's life: In 2017, Ivanka Trump and Chelsea Clinton came to her defence after a video of Malia smoking weed began circulating. First daughters are often the target of sexist and exploitative media coverage; George W. Bush's daughters Barbara and Jenna were regularly dragged through gossip magazines while they were being normal young women and partying in college, too.
Malia should be able to have fun, make mistakes, and be a young woman in college without worrying her photos and private moments will be splashed all over the internet. What she drinks and who she dates isn't news.