First Lady Melania Trump said she does not soften her assessments when President Donald Trump asks how he did — even when he would rather not hear them — during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026.
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade asked the first lady to grade her husband’s address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, delivered the previous day, Tuesday, Sept. 22. Kilmeade noted that the president will sometimes ask his wife how he performed after a speech, a habit captured in the Amazon Prime documentary “Melania.”
“I told him he had great delivery, he did very well, and a great speech. So I tell him the truth. Sometimes he doesn’t want to hear it, what I tell him, but that’s okay. I always say the truth,” she said.
Her Take on the Second Term
Asked how the president’s second term compares with his first, the first lady, 56, called him focused and said he is juggling a heavy workload at a moment when conditions around the world are very different. She added that she believes he is doing the best he can.
“He works nonstop. He has the most energy than anybody. He’s from morning [until] evening nonstop working,” the former model said of the president, 80.
The exchange offered a rare public glimpse at a dynamic that the documentary had already hinted at: a president who solicits his wife’s verdict on his performances, and a first lady who does not always hand him the review he is hoping for.
Opening Bell and a New Network
The television appearance capped a busy stretch in New York for the first lady. On Wednesday, Sept. 23, she rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, then delivered an address centered on IMPERIA, a new initiative bringing together female chief executives and business leaders. She has also been promoting her Fostering the Future Together initiative.
Her approach to the press has diverged from her husband’s on at least one front. The first lady granted CNN access to cover her Fostering the Future Together event at the United Nations. President Trump has removed CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House grounds, labeling the outlets “fake news.”
The East Wing’s media posture has become its own storyline as the first lady steps further into public-facing projects, from the stock exchange appearance to the women’s business network she unveiled in her remarks that day.
A Docuseries Expected in November
Melania Trump also used the interview to tease a follow-up to her documentary: a two-part docuseries she said will be noticeably different from the film. The series, she said, is built around one-on-one conversations recorded while she was traveling and filming, with the director putting questions to her throughout.
Some of those questions were personal, she said, and her answers will cover ground that audiences have not heard from her before. She described the prospect as exciting.
As for when viewers can expect it, the first lady did not commit to a hard release date. She said the two-part series was due out this year and pointed to November as the likely window, while noting that no exact date had been set as of her Sept. 23 remarks.
That leaves the follow-up to “Melania” as the next major project on her public calendar — and, if her own description holds, a more intimate one than the documentary that preceded it. For now, the most quotable line from her morning on Fox News was the simplest one: she tells the president what she thinks, whether or not he wants to hear it.