Nobody asked her, but Melania, who doesn’t speak, spoke today.
Here’s the thing. I’ve been obsessively following every thread of the Jeffrey Epstein story, every document drop, every name floated, every rumor circulating in the news. And yet, when Melania Trump — out of the blue — strode out in front of the White House press corps to issue a sweeping, unprompted denial of any relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, I found myself genuinely bewildered. I actually said out loud: “What is she talking about?”
And then, about thirty seconds later, I said: “Ah-ha.”
Melania doth protest too much.
There’s a reason Shakespeare’s line has survived four centuries, and that’s because it still rings true — probably more than ever. When someone rushes to the cameras to deny accusations nobody publicly leveled, they’re not clearing the air or being “transparent” — I hate that word, so overused.
No, what these come-forwarders are doing is the once-tried-and-true game of getting ahead of the story, pre-positioning themselves so that when the story does break, they can point back to this moment and say, “See? I denied it. I went public.” That’s not innocence.
I worked in PR for 30 years, and I’ve handled more than my share of crises — the “come forward” is one element of crisis management.
But in today’s hyper world, people now are accustomed to this trick, and they see right through it. With more news, more social media and more chatter, this approach now has been executed too many times.
Sure, sometimes these scenarios are true, honest and authentic. David Letterman’s admission to having improper relationships with his employees comes to mind. But in Melania’s case? No chance!
We do know she knows more than she’s saying because the record speaks for itself. Photos of Melania with Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell exist, and they are not doctored (Melania said during her soliloquy that pics of her were doctored; she didn’t specify which).
An email from Maxwell allegedly referring to Melania as “sweet pea” has been reported. These aren’t conspiracy theories; they’re documented in the files and they raise entirely legitimate questions about the depth and nature of that social world Melania inhabited that included Epstein and Maxwell, and her husband Donald.
By all indications, Melania wasn’t a wallflower with Epstein and Maxwell like she was at Trump’s inauguration, or anytime she’s standing next to him with emptiness written all over her face. Like everyone else who interacted with both of them — even if she’s First Lady — she needs to testify and not give some random, read-from-the-paper speech to reporters.
The House Oversight Committee GOP members devoted an entire day to hauling former First Lady Hillary Clinton before the committee, where she whacked their sorry behinds. It was a waste of time because she really did not know Epstein. And it was ludicrous. Clinton hasn’t been first lady for 26 years. But we have a first lady who actually knows Epstein with pictures and emails as proof.
The Republicans on the committee, and former AG Pam Bondi, don’t care about the survivors. They offered them nothing in the way of what they are demanding. These are real women. Damaged, resilient, ignored women who have been fighting for years just to be heard.
And Melania had the audacity to use them yesterday as a human shield for her own reputation.
“Congress must do its job,” she intoned, with all the warmth of…well, Melania Trump. “The survivors deserve their day.”
Oh, now she cares about survivors? Phony is as phony does — I think I’ve mangled that axiom the way Trump tried to say something to the effect that victims deserve spoils, which in this case, they most certainly do.
But Donald, like his GOP lapdogs, isn’t in the mood to give victims anything.
Neither is Melania. This is the woman who famously wore that jacket reading “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” while children were being separated from their parents at the border. This is the woman whose own documentary, which I watched for approximately fifteen minutes before reaching for the Pepto-Bismol, is a monument to wealth-flaunting, couture detachment.
Melania shuns anyone who shops off-the-rack, or doesn’t have their hair blown out by a live-in hairdresser. The Epstein survivors are shopping at Kohl’s. They don’t have stylists. They don’t agonize over shoulder pads the way Melania does in her vain film. And they have suffered in ways Melania’s carefully curated fake empathy cannot begin to touch.
Melania has absolutely no business speaking up for them or about them. She. Does. Not. Care.
Melania takes her grubbing and grifting cues directly from her husband — from a distance though, because she can’t stand to be near him. She is a full participant in the family business of shameless self-enrichment. She has sold NFTs, written a moronic and empty memoir, she’s into cryptocurrency — of course, and she licenses her photos, and there’s that $40 million documentary.
She pocketed $250,000 from the Log Cabin Republicans for a single speech, and many other lucrative speaking fees. She took $108,000 from a Trump super PAC for her hair. I guess she’s still doing that failed “Be Best” thing, although, because it’s Melania's, it's most likely something that be best for Melania.
Melania’s lust for money is only outpaced by her phoniness.
And that phoniness was on full display yesterday. She had the gall to try and deflect from her obfuscation about Epstein to her faux-support for the survivors.
Yes, the Epstein survivors deserve exactly what Melania said they deserve, a public forum, under oath, before Congress, with cameras rolling. Not because Melania said so. Not as a vehicle for her to perform altruism she has never once demonstrated. But because justice has been long delayed for these deserving women.
Look, any public support for the survivors is a win, because in the Trump administration no one seems willing to give them the peace of mind of putting Epstein's accomplices in prison.
The survivors are hurting. They are fragile, and they are brave, and they have been used, by powerful men, by broken institutions, and now, apparently, by a first lady who discovered her conscience when it suddenly became useful for her as a way to show she “cares.”
Melania’s come-to-Jesus moment this morning were lies tangled up with spurious, duplicitous froth. How much does she truly know? I don’t know.
But I know this: in my professional experience, when someone offers a denial no one asked for, the real question isn’t whether they’re telling the truth — it’s what they’re trying to hide.