It looks like Melania Trump doesn't give a damn about Christmas, or the outrage over children separated from their parents at the border. Melania expressed her frustration and talked about the criticism she faced over her husband's policy separating children from their parents at the border in a secretly recorded tape leaked by the first lady's former friend-cum-assistant Stephanie Winston during a Thursday night appearance on CNN. According to reports, Winston had shared the recording of their private conversation she and Melania had in the summer of 2018.
In the recordings made without the first lady's knowledge, Melania can be heard saying, "I'm working like a – my a*s off at Christmas stuff that you know, who gives a f*** about Christmas stuff and decoration?" adding, "But I need to do it, right?". She griped about having to participate in decorating the interior of the White House for the holidays, which is a tradition. Melania emphasized that her participation in the tradition put her in a "damned if I do, damned if I don't" situation with reference to the outrage over Trump's family-separation policy.
Meanwhile, Melania's chief of staff Stephanie Grisham blasted Wolkoff for leaking the tapes. She "Secretly taping the First Lady and willfully breaking an NDA to publish a salacious book is a clear attempt at relevance. The timing of this continues to be suspect - as does this never-ending exercise in self-pity and narcissism," Stephanie Grisham said in her statement.
The tapes shared by Stephanie Winston were played exclusively on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" on Thursday night which has created a huge buzz on social media. Stephanie Winston Wolkoff and Melania Trump have published a book about their time together, Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady about a month ago.
Shortly after the release of their book, Stephanie Winston disclosed that she had the tapes that could support her claims made in the book. She also revealed that she had started recording her conversations with Melania in 2018 after her firm was accused of taking $26 million to plan Trump's inauguration.
