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If you missed it, former first lady Michelle Obama sat down with Ellen DeGeneres for her first TV interview since leaving the White House and they dished about the “very scary” world under Donald Trump.

Mrs. Obama admitted that while there are many people who are concerned about the future of this nation, others don’t see fear.

“People are afraid,” she said. “But then there are people who feel good about the direction of the country. So that’s what makes this country complicated because it’s made up of so many different people from different backgrounds. We are this mosh pit of society and sometimes there’s a rub, Mrs. Obama explained.

“But the thing that we have to remember, the thing I learned in the eight years that I was in the White House, was that what we do every day in our lives, the good things that we do every day — and we know we do it — we show empathy, we care for each other. We do have a lot in common,” she said. “That’s what it means to lead with hope and not fear. And that’s all we have, is hope.”

She went on to say that no matter how hard it can be, you need to “love each other, to take care of each other, to show empathy.”

“You can’t do that only when people make you feel good or safe. We’ve got to do it all across the board. We have to be an open-hearted nation — and that’s who we are,” she said. “And that’s the truth of who we are, so you can’t lose sight of that. So let’s just keep living our lives like that every single day and forget what they’re saying in Washington. That’s not necessarily who we are. We know who we are and I know who this country is.”

To preview the “Ellen” episode, Obama took to her Snapchat to share some behind the scenes moments during the show’s taping.

During their conversation, she also told Ellen what was in that Tiffany’s gift that Melania Trump gave her on Donald Trump’s Inauguration.

“There’s all this protocol,” she explains. “This is like a state visit, so they tell you that you’re going to do this, they’re going to stand here. Never before do you get this gift, so I’m sort of like, ‘OK, what am I supposed to do with this gift?’” Obama says, narrating as a clip of the exchange playing on a large screen behind her and Ellen.

“Everyone cleared out and no one would come and take the box, and I’m thinking, ‘Do we take the picture with (it)?’ And then my husband saved the day — see he grabbed the box and took it back inside. But everybody cleared out — no staff, no one. I was like, ‘What do you do with the box?’”

Obama told DeGeneres that Mrs. Trump gave her “a lovely frame.”

Her appearance on the “Ellen Show” also happened to be for Ellen’s 60th birthday celebration.

 

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(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)