Michelle Obama takes thinly veiled jab at Trump's White House staff: 'You can't just put anybody up there'
The former first lady during made the comments during a book tour stop in Brooklyn
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Michelle Obama has taken a seemingly thinly veiled jab at Donald Trump's choice of White House staff during a book tour in New York.
The former first lady discussed her memoir, Becoming, with actor Sarah Jessica Parker at Brooklyn's Barclays centre on Wednesday night.
She gave more insight into what happens when a presidential candidate officially wins the race, pointing out that the president-elect must start thinking like a leader immediately.
"The minute you're elected, your life changes," she says in footage recorded by a member of the audience.
Ms Obama added: "World leaders are calling the president-elect, immediately, your security detail changes. So you now have a presidential motorcade."
She highlighted how crucial it is for the president-elect to start thinking about their future staffers as early and as critically as possible.
"You have to start hiring your staff and vetting people because there has to be a plan to getting people in the White House," she said.
"This is still a federal government, so you can't just put anybody up there. You have to know something about them."
Her remarks were met with laughs and cheers from the audience – presumably because they appeared to be thinly veiled references to the many firings and resignations experienced by the Trump administration.
Reince Priebus, John Kelly, Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, Rob Porter, Sean Spicer, Anthony Scaramucci, Hope Hicks, and Omarosa Manigault Newman are just a few of the dozens of staffers who had jobs in the White House and have since left office. Kelly's departure is planned for the end of the year.
Mr Trump has also faced criticism for giving White House positions to members of his family, such as his daughter Ivanka Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who are both senior advisers.
Ms Obama acknowledged that her comments might be interpreted as her "throwing shade", but insisted that they simply constituted facts and were based on what her family did when Barack Obama was elected in 2008.
The former first lady's book tour began on 13 November in Chicago. New dates have been added and Ms Obama is now scheduled to take her tour to Europe (as well as other cities in the US and in Canada) in 2019.
She will hold talks in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway before her 14 April, 2019 date at London's O2 Arena. Ms Obama will then travel to France and the Netherlands before returning to the US and Canada.
The last event currently planned on her tour is a talk at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, on 12 May.
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