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Trump says Melania often calls him 'sir or Mr President', Internet sniffs 'subtle signs of S&M' in his anecdote

'I go home all the time, First Lady, how'd you like the crowd? Sir, I didn't see it. Sometimes she'll call me Mr President, but she's only kidding, believe me,' Trump said

Rumors floating of the lack of marital bliss between President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were further fueled by the POTUS himself when he told a rally crowd at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Wednesday, September 23, that his wife sometimes calls him "sir" and "Mr President".

Trump excitedly recalled an interaction with Melania in the recent past where he asked her whether she had seen the crowd size of one of his rallies. "I go home all the time, 'First Lady, how'd you like the crowd? 'Sir, I didn't see it. I didn't see it. I didn't see it Donald, I didn't see it.' Sometimes she'll call me Mr President, but she's only kidding, believe me," the president said. Although his intention was to boast about the number of people showing up at his rallies and also show off the close relationship he had with his wife, his words did not quite achieve that effect.

CNN reporter Daniel Dale, who was one of the people who reported Trump's remarks in a tweet, said that it seemed like the POTUS accidentally had Melania call him "sir" instead of the usual "darling" that she is known to refer to him by. To quickly diffuse the mistake, Trump made the "Mr President" comment as a followup. Mocking Trump's words, Dale added in a separate tweet, "I think this is the first accidental sir story in the history of sir stories, but darling stories are basically sir stories anyway."

The clip of Trump making the odd comments about his wife calling him "sir" and "Mr President" quickly went viral on social media with a number of people mocking the POTUS, raising questions on his actual relationship with Melania. "I think it is so telling that we see Melania nowhere on the campaign trail..." one wrote, while another shared a meme, writing, "'Sometimes she'll call me Mr President, but she's only kidding, believe me.' We can only imagine what she really calls him" A third wondered whether the terms were used by Melania to feed into Trump's twisted sexual fantasy. "Subtle signs of S&M? I’m sure his ego likes when a woman calls him 'Sir' or 'Mr President.' Must be a huge turn on for him to have a woman be submissive to him," the user tweeted. A fourth was not convinced that the first couple even shared conversations together, tweeting, "Whenever he refers to conversations he’s had with Melania, they come off so stilted & awkward that I am certain he and Melania never actually speak to each other unless they absolutely have to."

One user could not get past the fact that the president calls his wife "first lady" instead of her name. "I’m convinced he kept referring to her as 'First Lady' in previous tellings because he blanked on her name," the user wrote, while another said, "So he asks her if she noticed how big it was and she says she didn't see it. Sounds about right."

Others were convinced that Trump telling people that anyone called him "sir" meant that he was lying. This stemmed from a story Trump had narrated previously where he said that foreign dignitaries called him "sir". "Proof positive that 'Sir' is the tell for a COMPLETELY made up story to follow. @FLOTUS refuses to share a bed (or even live in the same house) with him. The chances of her referring to him as SIR, are effectively zero," one said, while another commented, "So now both foreign leaders and his own wife call him 'sir'? Next it’ll be god calling him 'sir'. Seriously, this is one of his tells. When he says someone calls him sir, whatever he’s talking about is a lie." A third remarked, 'Sir' in a Trump anecdote indicates that it is total fiction" A fourth added, "Key words he is lying: Believe me."

There were also those who drew a comparison between Melania calling Trump "sir" and Vice-President Mike Pence calling his wife, Karen, "mother". "I can't decide if that's worse than Pence & 'Mother'," one commented, while another said, "So we have a 'sir' and 'mother'..." A third opined that Trump's story triumphed Pence's habit for the latter was old school. "Sir is worse for me. There was a time when it was not uncommon for a man to refer to his wife as 'mother' when his children were around and I believe it sometimes became a habit to do so when they weren't around. I remember hearing this in old movies and tv shows," the user said.