‘Melania became Melody’: Trump recalls calling the military to fix autocorrect issue

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump shared a humorous anecdote about his wife, first lady Melania Trump, during a White House event honoring military mothers on May 6.

Speaking ahead of Mother’s Day celebrations, Trump revealed that his phone’s autocorrect repeatedly changed Melania’s name to “Melody” while he was posting on social media.

The light-hearted remark came during an event held in the East Room of the White House, where Melania introduced the president before he addressed attendees. Trump’s comments drew laughter from the audience as he joked about seeking military help to fix the issue.

Trump says autocorrect changed Melania to Melody

Trump recounted how his phone’s autocorrect repeatedly altered Melania Trump’s name whenever he typed quickly while posting online.

"I love the name Melody because for a long time, you know, they have spell correct and word correct on these crazy machines that we use to put out Truths, or they used to be called Tweets," he said. "Every time I wrote Melania, it would correct to Melody."

Trump said he often posted rapidly and skipped proofreading, which led to public criticism over the typo.

"They said, 'He didn't know the name of his wife. He keeps calling her-' And I said, 'What the hell is wrong with this machine?'" he added.

The president then joked that he eventually turned to the military for assistance in fixing the issue.

"You know who corrected it? The military. I said, 'Come here. You got to correct this. You're killing me.' I took more abuse. She's been called Melody a lot," he said.

The exchange took place during a White House gathering honoring military mothers ahead of Mother’s Day. Melania delivered introductory remarks before Trump took the stage.

During her speech, a comment describing the president’s empathy reportedly drew laughter from some attendees before she finished speaking.

Trump later expanded his remarks beyond the anecdote, touching on several political and foreign policy issues, including tensions with Iran, crime in US cities, and the 2024 election campaign.

Trump says Iran wants to negotiate deal

While speaking at the event, Trump described tensions with Iran as a “skirmish” and suggested negotiations were progressing positively. "They want to make a deal. They want to negotiate, and I think that military mothers would want to hear that," he said.

He also reiterated his long-standing desire to add a ballroom to the White House and made an unverified claim involving Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at a recent White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

According to images from the event, Hegseth was briefly seen standing amid confusion during the dinner, though not on a table as Trump claimed. The president’s remarks concluded with polite applause from attendees at the East Room event.