Melania Trump taped making derogatory remarks
about Donald and Ivanka – report
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff reportedly taped the first
lady’s ‘harsh comments’ and plans to share them in a book, Melania & Me
Martin
Pengelly
@MartinPengelly
Tue 25 Aug
2020 14.02 BSTLast modified on Tue 25 Aug 2020 15.21 BST
Melania
Trump will speak at the Republican national convention on Tuesday night, in the
shadow of an extraordinary report that she was taped making derogatory comments
about her husband’s adult children and even Donald Trump himself.
On Monday
the media reporter Yashar Ali cited unnamed sources in reporting that Stephanie
Winston Wolkoff, a former friend and adviser, “taped the first lady” and plans
to share the remarks in her book.
They
include “harsh comments about Ivanka Trump, the president’s elder daughter and
a senior adviser”, Ali wrote.
Melania
& Me is out on 1 September.
The US
continues to digest the publication, by the Washington Post, of tapes of Donald
Trump’s older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, calling the president “cruel” and
criticizing his character and behavior.
Those tapes
were made surreptitiously but legally by Mary L Trump, the president’s niece,
who released a bestselling book in July, Too Much and Never Enough: How My
Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.
Simon &
Schuster published Mary Trump’s book and one by John Bolton, Trump’s former
national security adviser. It will publish Melania & Me.
In
publicity material, the publisher says Wolkoff, a long-term friend of Melania
Trump “was recruited to help produce the 58th presidential inauguration and to
become the first lady’s trusted adviser”.
“… Then it
all fell apart when she was made the scapegoat for inauguration finance
irregularities. Melania could have defended her innocent friend and confidant,
but she stood by her man, knowing full well who was really to blame. The
betrayal nearly destroyed Wolkoff.”
Fundraising
for Trump’s inauguration has been the subject of investigations by the special
counsel and authorities in New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia,
which alleged fundraising was used to enrich Trump family members.
The White
House did not immediately comment on reports about Wolkoff’s book but last
weekend, responding to his sister’s comments, the president indicated he has
grown used to such news.
“Every day
it’s something else,” Trump said. “Who cares?”
Evidently,
publishing companies do. Melania & Me is the latest in a stream of
tell-alls due out before the election in November. The former personal lawyer
Michael Cohen and former campaign aide Rick Gates – both convicted in cases
arising from the work of special counsel Robert Mueller, Gates a figure in the
inauguration case – have books on the way. So does the former Mueller
prosecutor Andrew Weissmann.
HR
McMaster, national security adviser before Bolton, has a memoir coming out this
month. The Watergate reporter Bob Woodward also has a new Trump book coming.
Melania has
been the subject of previous books including Free, Melania by Kate Bennett and
Melania: The Art of Her Deal by Mary Jordan.
From
Wolkoff, Simon & Schuster promises a “candid and emotional memoir” which
will answer questions about many of the most scandalous and salacious moments
of the Trump presidency. Among them: “How did Melania react to the Access
Hollywood tape” – in which Donald Trump infamously boasted of grabbing women
“by the pussy” – “and her husband’s affair with Stormy Daniels”, which Trump
denies but which remains a cause of legal trouble and political jeopardy.
“Does she
get along well with Ivanka?” the publisher asks. “Why did she wear that jacket
with ‘I really don’t care, do u?’ printed on the back? Is Melania happy being
first lady?
“And what
really happened with the inauguration’s funding of $107m? Wolkoff has some
ideas …
This article is more than 1 month old
Melania Trump's former aide to release
'explosive' memoir – report
This article is more than 1 month old
Book by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former unpaid
adviser to the first lady, will detail their 15-year friendship
Guardian
staff
Tue 7 Jul
2020 00.18 BSTLast modified on Tue 7 Jul 2020 23.27 BST
A former
senior aide to Melania Trump who helped oversee Donald Trump’s inauguration has
written an “explosive” memoir detailing her 15-year friendship with the first
lady, according to reports.
Stephanie
Winston Wolkoff was appointed as an unpaid adviser to the first lady shortly
after Donald Trump won the 2016 election, and she played a high-profile role in
helping Melania Trump transition into the White House from New York while
advising her on her political portfolio.
But in
February 2018, Winston Wolkoff was forced out after reports that her firm had
received $26m in payments to help plan Trump’s lavish inauguration ceremony in
2017 and related events. At the time, Winston Wolkoff said the firm had
“retained a total of $1.62m” that was divided among staff. She has since
challenged the notion that she was dismissed and claimed that she was “thrown
under the bus”.
Winston
Wolkoff later cooperated with federal prosecutors in Manhattan who opened an
investigation into whether Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee misspent some of
the record $107m it raised from donations.
The book
will be titled Melania and Me, and published by Gallery Books, an imprint of
Simon & Schuster, on 1 September, Vanity Fair reported.
The memoir
will detail Winston Wolkoff’s time “navigating the White House and East Wing”,
where first ladies have offices (the president works in the West Wing). It will
also include her “journey from their friendship that started in New York to
[Winston Wolkoff’s] role as the First Lady’s trusted advisor to her abrupt and
very public departure, to life after Washington”, according to a description
obtained by the magazine.
Winston
Wolkoff was long considered one of Melania’s closest friends. A socialite, she
previously worked for Vogue and was best known for her role in producing the
Met Gala, the star-studded annual fundraising gala for the benefit of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York.
When the
two parted ways in 2017, she told the New York Times: “I expect to remain a
trusted source for advice and support on an informal basis.”
According
to the Daily Beast, a Google Books description of the book available online
said it would provide “a revealing and explosive portrayal of Stephanie Winston
Wolkoff’s 15-year friendship with Melania Trump and observations of the most
chaotic White House in history”.
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