'She’s mastered the art of complicity': Ex-Melania aide pans her hush money trial silence

With Donald Trump's hush money trial wrapping up in a Manhattan courtroom, and with the jury expected to be sent off for deliberations on Wednesday, a former aide to ex-first lady Melania Trump said it is no surprise she is a no-show with her husband facing prison time.

In a blunt column for the Daily Beast, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff cut right to the chase and accused her former boss of maintaining a "façade of calm" in the storm because it keeps her from having to face scrutiny.

More to the point, she added, she noted Melania Trump "isn’t an enigma or a mystery. She is simply self-possessed, stoically guarded, and emotionally armored."

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According to Winston Wolkoff, Melania Trump is a mirror image of her husband in that she, "... lives by the same principles. She’s a ruthless survivor and opportunist—willing to do whatever it takes to resort to any means necessary for self-preservation. She’s mastered the art of complicity."

"Melania’s existence is predicated on always minimizing the impact of Donald’s often despicable behavior. Her defense mechanism is her ability to lock the door and throw away the key to most anything that brings her emotional discomfort. The secret to her happiness is to be authentically and unapologetically skin-deep," she elaborated before adding, "Melania never had any great expectations of Donald as a faithful husband or doting father."

Noting that Melania confided to her, "Just let him do what he’s going to do. Why get in a fight about something that won’t change?" she added, "little did I realize how merciless and unscrupulous she was in her relentless pursuit of power. Melania, like Donald, had told me many times that she wanted to win and that meant at all costs."

You can read more here.