The actress portrayed as a Melania Trump lookalike who strips off in T.I.‘s recent ‘Dime Trap’ album video teaser has defended her role after receiving a number threats – and the First Lady has responded too.
The video shows the US rapper smoking a cigar after Donald Trump leaves for his weekend retreat, his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Trump’s wife, Melania, appears in the room wearing an “I Don’t Care” jacket similar to the one the First Lady sported in June.
Dear 45,
I ain’t Kanye. ? pic.twitter.com/BCS8nkbn1M— T.I. (@Tip) October 13, 2018
All the clips of Trump, such as him departing the White House to board his Marine 1 helicopter, are taken from news archives.
T.I tweeted the footage with a caption that reads: “Dear 45, I ain’t Kanye”, which references the relationship between Kanye West and the president.
Responding to the clip, White House communications director Stephanie Grisham deemed as “disrespectful and disgusting”.
“Like it or not, she is the First Lady and this is the White House,” said Grisham. “It’s disrespectful and disgusting to portray her this way simply because of politics. These kinds of vulgar attacks only further the divisiveness and bias in our country – it needs to stop.”
Writing on Instagram, Marden has now said that she has received death threats for her portrayal – but stands by the video as an opportunity to ’empower women’.
“This weekend I experienced this with my latest post of TI’s new teaser of his music video – where I was hired (as an actress) not a stripper to portray Melania Trump,” she wrote. “It was a creative choice for me, and also an opportunity to empower women. I stand firmly in my decision to share all of myself in this role. I wanted to be brave, be fearless and for the first time in my life do a role that required nudity. The body is nothing to be ashamed of. In this time where women are finally speaking up about being victimised I felt good about being a strong enough woman to portray a nude First Lady.”
She continued: “It was a hard decision for me but I’m proud of myself for being so brave.
“I send love to all the people who called me names and made accusations or delivered hurtful insults. These are clearly deep wounds inside of you. That have nothing to do with me. For that I am sad and wish you much healing. To all the political people threatening me, I remind you this is a music video. Relax!
“I am an actress who played the role of #nakedMelania just like when Alec Baldwin Portrays Trump on SNL. So now I start my week wishing you all the best and remember if you don’t have something nice to say, say nothing at all.”
Last week, West delivered a 10-minute monologue to Trump, reporters, guests, and other government officials ahead of a working lunch.
In the speech, he reiterated calls to scrap the 13th amendment – for which he received heavy criticism in September – and, among a host of other topics, pitched an Apple iPlane that would succeed Trump’s Air Force One jet.
The White House’s Director of Communications for the First Lady, Stephanie Grisham, responded to T.I.’s teaser with the hashtag: “#disgusting”.
How is this acceptable? #disgusting #boycottT.I. @Tip https://t.co/HvnFahfsVK
— Stephanie Grisham (@StephGrisham45) October 13, 2018
Meanwhile, T.I. has slammed West’s visit to the White House, calling it “repulsive, disgraceful, embarrassing”.
In an Instagram post, he wrote: “I’ve been extremely patient and made it a point to not jump to any premature conclusions about Ye’ & his antics […] But now this shit is next level, futuristic Sambo, Hopping Bob, Stephen off Django ass shit Ye!!!!”
T.I.’s ‘Dime Trap’ is out now