Tony nominee Laura Benanti has played Melania Trump on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert since 2016. It’s a fantastic impression, and while the Christmas-hating First Lady won’t be missed once she leaves the White House, Benanti’s impression will be. The actress told the Daily Beast last month that she was working on “a great big goodbye to [Melania] that I’m really, really excited about… It’s going to be pretty, pretty spectacular.”
It was spectacular.
The Late Show staged a full-blown musical farewell for Melania, who’s excited to leave Washington, D.C. and move back to New York City (where everyones hates her and her husband). “It’s so good to be in NYC, the be-bestest city on earth. The Huge Apple. The city that never sleeps with a porn star and then lies to you about it,” she said. Being here makes me feel… which is something I don’t normally do.” Melania then burst into a parody of “Belle” from Beauty and the Beast, except instead of French villagers saying “bonjour,” it’s disgusting Times Square Elmo telling the First Lady that she sucks.
She later sings, “Starting to wonder if New York dislikes me? / What is this word ‘complicity?’ / That riot on the Mall, hurt Melania most of all / No one on Earth is bullied more than me!” This sendoff is better than any magazine cover. Watch the video above.