Trump Reponds to Criticism by Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama's memoir, Becoming, is officially out on Tuesday, but outlets including the AP and the Washington Post got their hands on advance copies. Some of the first headlines focused on the former first lady's criticism of President Trump—among other things, she calls him a "mysogynist" and says she can never forgive him for spreading the birther controversy and thus endangering her family by stirring up "wingnuts." But in the book she also writes of conceiving her daughters with IVF, having a miscarriage, undergoing marriage counseling, and grappling with her public new role. Details, including Trump's response:

• Miscarriage: The Obamas had their two daughters after a miscarriage more than 20 years ago, Obama tells ABC News' Robin Roberts. "I felt like I failed because I didn't know how common miscarriages were because we don't talk about them," she says in the interview, which airs in full 9pm Sunday. "I think it's the worst thing that we do to each other as women, not share the truth about our bodies and how they work."
• IVF: Around the same time, Obama says it hit her that "the biological clock is real" and "egg production is limited." To conceive Malia, now 20, and Sasha, 17, "we had to do IVF."

• Trump responds: Asked Friday about the former first lady's criticism of him, Trump took a shot at her husband instead. “I guess she wrote a book," he told reporters, per Mediaite. "She got paid a lot of money to write a book. And they always insist you come up with controversial. Well, I’ll give you a little controversy back. I’ll never forgive [Barack Obama] for what he did to our United States military. By not funding properly, it was depleted. Everything was old and tired. And I came in and I had to fix it.”
• Marriage counseling: She and Barack went "a handful of times," and it helped her understand that she was "in charge" of her happiness, Obama writes in the book, per the AP. "This was my pivot point," she writes. "My moment of self-arrest."
• The example: "I know too many young couples who struggle and think that somehow there's something wrong with them," Obama tells Roberts. "Michelle and Barack Obama, who have a phenomenal marriage and who love each other, we work on our marriage. And we get help with our marriage when we need it."
• Revealing: The book is far more revealing than your typical first lady memoir, writes Krissah Thompson at the Post. Consider this line, after becoming first lady: “I was female, black and strong, which to certain people ... translated only to ‘angry.’ It was another damaging cliche, one that’s been forever used to sweep minority women to the perimeter of every room ... I was now starting to actually feel a bit angry, which then made me feel worse, as if I were fulfilling some prophecy laid out for me by the haters.”
• On her boyfriend: "As soon as I allowed myself to feel anything for Barack, the feelings came rushing—a toppling blast of lust, gratitude, fulfillment, wonder."

(More Michelle Obama stories.)