Liberal Forum

Donald and Melania Trump reportedly compared life in the White House to being in a Venezuelan jail.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump met with the wife of an imprisoned Venezuelan opposition leader in February and tried to sympathize with her husband's plight by comparing life in the White House to that inside a Venezuelan prison, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

Lilian Tintori, who is married to the Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, was at the White House to discuss human rights in Venezuela.

Many view Lopez as a political prisoner sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison in 2015 on trumped-up charges related to a period of deadly antigovernment protests in 2014.

During the visit with Tintori, the president seemed unfamiliar with her and her experiences, The Post reported, though he reportedly knew enough to have "praised her past as a reality television star in Venezuela's version of 'Survivor.'"

The president and the first lady also reportedly tried to commiserate with Tintori through a source of their own discomfort: the White House.

Melania Trump said she sympathized with what Lopez had gone through in jail in Caracas, Venezuela, adding that the White House felt as confining as prison, two people familiar with the meeting told The Post.

Donald Trump reportedly agreed.

How an Oval Office meeting led to a Trump tweet that changed U.S. policy toward Venezuela

President Trump’s decision to suddenly announce a major change in U.S. policy toward Venezuela in February began with an unexpected Oval Office meeting with Lilian Tintori, wife of the country’s most prominent political prisoner.

At the White House to meet Vice President Pence and press the administration to do more about human rights in her home country,

Tintori was whisked in to see Trump, who seemed unfamiliar with her story but praised her past as a reality television star in Venezuela’s version of “Survivor.”

Later, as Tintori made her case during the 40-minute meeting, first lady Melania Trump, who was also in the room, said she sympathized with the conditions Tintori’s husband, Leopoldo ­López, faced in jail back in Caracas because the White House often felt as confining as a prison, according to two people familiar with the meeting, a point on which the president agreed.

Finally, as the meeting ended, the president suggested a group photo, including Pence and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a Tintori ally who was at the White House for a scheduled dinner with the president.

After a couple of attempts — Trump didn’t like the first photo because he was smiling — the president was pleased enough with the final version, which showed him scowling and giving a thumbs-up sign under a portrait of Andrew Jackson.

He promptly posted the photo on Twitter.

“Venezuela should allow Leopoldo Lopez, a political prisoner & husband of @liliantintori (just met w/@marcorubio) out of prison immediately,” Trump wrote, typing out his tweet right there in the Oval Office.

With that, the president upended years of U.S. policy toward Venezuela and signaled that his administration would take a tougher stance with President Nicolás Maduro’s repressive regime amid a deepening socioeconomic crisis in the South American nation.