Cold and selfish: the damning portrayal of Melania Trump by her ex-best friend
Former advisor and best friend of Melania Trump, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff published Melania and me, a book in which she lifts the veil on their relationship, and on her time in the White House. A damning portrait. She also does not spare Ivanka, the president's daughter.
Cold, casual, selfish: as the US presidential campaign is in full swing, in September 2020, Melania Trump finds herself under fire from a new attack. It comes, this time from her ex-best friend and counselor, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff: she publishes on September 1, the book Melania and me ("Melania and me", Editor's note), at Simon and Schuster. She reveals the less shining aspects of their relationship, and of the personality of the First Lady.
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff met Melania Trump in New York in 1998, when their friendship began. This former event manager for Vogue magazine (the MET Gala, that was her) was then her advisor and then helped her plan Donald Trump's investiture ceremony in 2017. She would have quarreled with her little after the start of the president's term. The communicator would have quickly left her post at the White House, after the amount received by her company for the organization of the ceremony (26 million dollars, or nearly 22 million euros) caused a scandal.
A best friend?
Desire for transparency or revenge? Whatever the motivations of Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, she describes her friendship with Melania and the Trumps as “the biggest mistake of [her] life: emotional, mental, physical, financial, social and professional (….). It suddenly became painfully clear that Melania was not really my friend (...) ", relays the Jezebel site, which publishes some excerpts from the book.
There were some warning signs that could have put him on edge. In her book, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff recounts that Melania, after visiting her home, sends her an email one day in which she mentions having seen her best friend's son: “I saw Taylor, I called him but I think he didn't recognize me ”. Normal, Stephanie's son is Tyler. "She misspelled and pronounced her first name for ten years, and neither he nor I ever corrected her," writes the author. She could see the correct spelling in my texts, emails, party invitations, but never changed the version. "
"She misspelled and pronounced my son's first name for ten years"
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Learning, while consulting the roadmap of an official trip, that Melania is allergic to nuts, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff falls from the skies: it is ten years that she herself has been battling with the multiple allergies of her other son, Zach. She even organizes charity events to benefit scientific research: “As far as I can remember, Melania has never been available to participate. And never wrote a check either. "
Without forgetting this moment of meditation at the Shoah memorial located in Washington, where the two women go one day. Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, whose grandparents are Holocaust survivors, feels her heart tighten before the Eternal Flame that honors the memory of those who have died. "Did Melania perceive my emotion and invite me to light a candle with her for my grandparents?" No, ”she laments, adding that the first lady was especially concerned about the pretty photo she was going to post on social media.
State affairs
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff also reveals some of the reactions that Melania Trump would have had, off the record, about controversies that have punctuated her husband's tenure. Starting with his infamous line "Grab'em by the pussy" in October 2016: a video from the Access Hollywood show relayed by the New York Times then resurfaced. Donald Trump, then in the middle of the presidential campaign, boasts of being able to "Catch women by the ch ****". While they are having lunch together, Stephanie dares to ask Melania the question that burns her lips: "How many times in history have the words 'president' and 'ch ****' been uttered in the same sentence? ? " After a silence, the first lady simply burst out laughing, "to the point where she had to wipe her eyes with her towel," says the author.
Same cynicism after Melania visited a customs and border protection center in Tucson, Arizona, near the Mexican border: many undocumented children are being held there, far from their loved ones, following a measure taken (but quickly canceled) by Donald Trump. While the images of crying migrants scandalize the nation, and Melania has officially made it known that she "hated to see children separated from their families", her speech in off, relayed in Melania and me, is quite different: "They don't know what's going on there. The kids I met were raised by coyotes, traffickers, and that's why they are put in shelters, ”she reportedly said. She claims they'd even be delighted to have a bed there, and a closet: “It's more than they have in their own country, where they sleep on the floor. As for mothers, they teach their children to say "I will be killed by gangs!" so they can stay there. While this is not true. " Other children find favor in his eyes: “Why not take care of our people? Many children in the United States are hungry. And there, we take care of those of others? That's crazy !"
More serious: Stephanie Winston Wolkoff told the Washington Post that Melania Trump would have used a private mailbox to discuss state matters such as contracts, partnerships, or travel plans made by the presidential couple to Japan or Israel. A serious fault, which would have contributed to cause the failure of Hillary Clinton during the last presidential election, after Donald Trump constantly attacked her on this point. But which was also committed by Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, under an investigation by the White House.
"Game Of Thrones"
But the event that would have revealed the darker side of Melania Trump, and crystallized the tensions between the two ex-best friends, would have been the inauguration ceremony. First thing: before her husband takes official office, Melania Trump insists that she be mentioned as "first lady elected", in the same way that Donald is designated as "president-elect" . Stephanie Winston-Wolkoff may explain to her that it is impossible, because she simply did not win any electoral votes, Melania does not see the problem: “'First lady elected!' Has become her mantra and the invitations have been sent. like that."
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff also recounts the shenanigans and other strategies, worthy of a Game of Thrones episode, devised so that Ivanka Trump, eldest daughter and adviser to Donald Trump, does not appear on screen during the inauguration ceremony. . Unofficially dubbed "Operation Ivanka Block," the plan is to place Ivanka in blind spots of cameras. Mission accomplished on D-Day: Melania’s face always appears in front of Ivanka’s.
This will pay back blow for blow: returning from a lunch with the president's daughter, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff learns that the seats surrounding the First Lady during an upcoming speech by the president have all been taken over by guests of Ivanka . Coincidence? Stephanie Winston Wolkoff doesn't believe, "Did she plan this lunch so that I miss the meeting around the event, and really think I wouldn't know?"
Since then, the author of the book has spoken about Ivanka Trump. In an interview with The New Abnormal podcast on December 18, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff believes that the one who rose to the rank of high adviser to the White House is made of a "mixture of stupidity and meanness". "I think Ivanka is Donald Trump cross-legged, okay? Trumps are raised to be Trumps. They show no emotion. " According to her, all family members are "genuinely superficial and selfish, and without complexes," and show no respect for one another.
When they worked together, she and Melania would also have been stunned to see Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner rise to high positions on the presidential team, when they were no more qualified than they: "When Ivanka slipped her name in the same sentence as that of General John Kelly (the former chief of staff of the White House, editor's note), we were like "My God, how dare she? How can we do that? How can we disrespect each other? And I think she really thinks she's up to it. "
A real threat?
In Melania and Me, we also learn that it was also Ivanka Trump who allegedly hired Kayleigh McEnany, now White House spokeswoman. And this, against the advice of the first lady: "A motive was clearly starting to emerge: the princess wanted to make Melania useless," comments the author.
She will not have succeeded entirely: Melania Trump has taken center stage during Donald Trump's recent appearances. Who remains the first to support him: on Fox News, the president said on September 1 that American women voters "adored him": "They love his style, his class, his grace," he added , as reported by the Daily Mail. As for the criticisms made of Melania Trump's Slovene accent after her speech at the Republican National Convention, he brushed them aside: “I found her speech incredible. You have to understand that English is not your first language ". It remains to be seen, now, what impact the First Lady's ex-best friend revelations had on the presidential campaign.
