Melania Trump’s written statement claiming that she was “unaware” of the Jan. 6 insurrection as it was taking place has come under scrutiny – but not for the reason you may think. Social media users zeroed in on the signature capping off the Thursday missive, noting that it bears an uncanny resemblance to that of her husband, former president Donald Trump.
“I mean, what the hell?” tweeted writer and radio host Bob Cesca above an zoomed-in image of the choppy, illegible signature. “Her signature looks exactly like Donald’s. You don’t think that’s weird?”
“Gee. It’s so weird how Donald Trump and his wife Melania have such a similar ‘spiky’ signature,” replied another user in all caps. “Who could have foreseen that two human beings who ended up married would have identical handwriting…”
Another user took his misgivings directly to the top, tagging the Justice Dept. and the Jan. 6 committee’s official accounts in a tweet that read, “Is forging someone’s signature legal? This isn’t Melania’s signature. It’s Donald’s. There’s no crime he won’t commit.”
Many Twitter users cited a 2018 Yahoo! article in which handwriting expert Sheila Kurtz remarked that the similarities between the two signatures were “amazing.”
“This is stylized,” she noted of Melania’s sign-off on a letter to Pamela Anderson, adding that it uncommon for spouse’s signatures to mimic each others’. “Maybe they brought someone in to show her how to do it or [it’s] a stamp, but it is definitely stylized.”
Amateur handwriting analysts have been airing their suspicions for just as long. In Nov. 2018, Daily Wire Senior Editor Ashe Short shared an image of a White House greeting card, noting “Melania’s signature looks a lot like Donald’s.”
One holiday season later, Nieman Lab founder Joshua Benton pointed out just how close the resemblance was in a holiday card supposedly signed by both the president and first lady.
“Wait, that is Melania’s signature?” he wrote. “Was making it like Trump’s part of the prenup?”
See below for more reactions to the former first lady’s signature.
