Actress Laura Benanti, who debuted her impression of first lady Melania Trump one year ago on CBS’s “The Late Show,” suggested to host Stephen Colbert Monday night that there’s a limit to her empathy when it comes to Mrs. Trump.

“I feel like basically now we are all Melania Trump,” Ms. Benanti said. “Like, we are all reluctantly married to Donald Trump.

“I do have empathy for her but at the same time I’m like, ‘Well you also chose that,’ ” she added.

Ms. Benanti, who has appeared as Mrs. Trump on “The Late Show” four times since her debut, made it clear in an interview with USA Today that while she has an issue with President Trump, she doesn’t want her impersonation to come off as insulting or disparaging to the first lady.

“I do not want it to appear as if I am making fun of her,” she said. “I think she’s beautiful. She speaks five languages.

“I don’t ever want it to feel like I’m being mean-spirited toward her or that I’m aggressively insinuating that she’s not intelligent,” she said. “She’s a model, so I play up the vampiness. I have no beef with her at all. Her husband is a different story.”

Ms. Benanti appeared willing to meet the first lady someday, telling USA Today: “I think that’s a question for her.”

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