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Is Malia Obama set for a summer internship in Madrid?

Jessica Jones
Jessica Jones - [email protected]
Is Malia Obama set for a summer internship in Madrid?
Malia Obama will do an internship at the US Embassy in Madrid. Photo: AFP

President Obama's eldest daughter will reportedly be undertaking an internship at the US Embassy in Madrid this summer.

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Barack Obama just announced his first trip to Spain as President, which will take place in July, and now his eldest daughter Malia, has decided to follow in his footsteps by choosing to begin her gap year in the country, it was reported.

After weeks of speculation in the US over where the President's daughter might spend her gap year, the Spanish newspaper ABC reports that the Obamas’ eldest daughter will undertake a summer internship at the US Embassy, a claim that was neither confirmed nor denied by the Embassy in Madrid.

Her choice of internship could be down to her father’s friendship with the US ambassador to Spain, James Costos, who was a big donor to Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012 and has championed business links between Spain and the US since he became ambassador.

A former HBO executive, Costos was instrumental in bringing the production of Game of Thrones to Spain, as well as several other Hollywood films.

The First Daughter is a movie buff and spent the last couple of summers interning on movie and television shoots.

Meanwhile, the ambassador's partner, Michael S Smith, an interior designer, is a close friend of the First Lady, and was chosen to redecorate the Obama's private rooms and the Oval Office in the White House

Malia will turn 18 on July 4th and has decided to take a gap year before starting at Harvard University in autumn 2017 "as part of the class of 2021" informed the White House in a statement.

She recently graduated from Sidwell Friends School in Washington DC and has previously undertaken work experience on the HBO series ‘Girls’, written and starring Lena Dunham.

Malia has studied Spanish, as was evident during her recent visit to Cuba where she acted as translator for her father. President Obama told ABC News his daughter's Spanish was "much better" than his own.

President Obama will visit Madrid between July 9th - 11th when he will meet with King Felipe and acting Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy. He will visit Madrid and Seville during his trip. 

The President first visited Spain as a 26-year-old backbacker in 1988, while his wife and daughter came on a private trip to Spain in 2010, when they stayed in Marbella and visited Granada and Ronda.

"We have no information on this and therefore we are not in a position to confirm or deny it," a spokesperson at the US Embassy in Madrid told The Local.

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