All posts tagged "melania trump"

Trump crudely brags about grabbing Melania's 'part' as cabinet officials snicker

President Donald Trump joked that he grabbed First Lady Melania Trump's back "or another part of her body" as two of his top health officials giggled behind him.

Donald Trump made the remark Friday during an Oval Office event announcing that all 50 states will join a program to lower some Medicaid drug prices, the Associated Press reported. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mehmet Oz, who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, flanked the president.

"What is your message?" a reporter asked during questions from the press, pointing to the president's speech at the United Nations General Assembly next week.

"Well, [last] year, they wouldn't let my person in the teleprompter room," Donald Trump replied. "Remember that? My teleprompter operator was banned from the room."

A UN official disputed that after the Sept. 23, 2025, speech, saying the White House had run its own teleprompter.

"But what was your message?" the reporter pressed.

"You remember that? They turned off the escalator," the president said.

The escalator stopped as Donald Trump and the First Lady stepped onto it on their way to that speech. The UN later said the president's own videographer, walking backward up the steps to film the couple, may have set off a safety switch.

"Fortunately, my first lady was very strong, and I was able to grab her back or another part of her body," Donald Trump said.

Men standing behind the president began to giggle, including Kennedy and Oz. Donald Trump turned in his chair toward one of the men, then turned further and looked up at Oz.

"It was actually a little bit lower than the back, and it kept me standing tall," Donald Trump continued, smiling at Oz. "I was standing very tall."

He told a similar version of the escalator story in February at a meeting of his Board of Peace, describing putting his hand on a part of the first lady's body, UNILAD reported.

The remarks echo comments uncovered in 2016, when an audio recording caught the then-reality TV star bragging that he liked to "grab" women.

"Grab them by the p—," Donald Trump said in a 2005 "Access Hollywood" recording, made public in October 2016, in which he boasted about groping women, according to Global News.

The Trump campaign later dismissed those remarks as "locker room talk."

On Friday, the president's escalator story eventually veered back into his complaints about his teleprompter operator.

"But you remember, I was going up in the… and it came to a dead stop," Donald Trump said Friday, returning to the escalator. "And this was… I built a lot of escalators. I put in a lot of escalators."

"And then I got up to make my speech, and I said, 'I don't have a teleprompter,'" the president said. "Can you imagine? And I think I spoke very well. Nice to have a president that doesn't need a teleprompter."

Melania Trump's 'extraordinary' profit scheme alarms biographer: 'She doesn't do anything'

First Lady Melania Trump has been raking in "extraordinary" profits during the Trump administration despite doing very little, according to The Daily Beast.

In a Tuesday article, The Daily Beast reported that Melania individually made close to $17 million last year based on annual financial disclosures. Most of her earnings came from the Brett Ratner-directed documentary about her released earlier this year, her book sales and crypto NFTs, The Daily Beast reported.

Trump biographer Michael Wolff reacted to the findings in a Tuesday episode of Inside Trump's Head, which is produced by The Daily Beast. Wolff has notably been battling Melania's lawyers in court after he made public comments connecting the first lady to Jeffrey Epstein's social circle.

"This is extraordinary," Wolff said. "Among all of the extraordinary things in the Trump administration, among all the norm-breaking, this one is right out up front."

The reporting on Melania's earnings comes after The Daily Beast performed a First Lady "audit," in which it used Melania's public calendar to compare her use of time with former first ladies Jill Biden and Michelle Obama. The Daily Beast found that Melania has done a third less than Jill Biden and delivered 78 percent fewer speeches than Michelle Obama. Melania was also noticeably absent during chunks of July and August.

"She doesn't do anything as the first lady," Wolff said. "What are the two roles of being the first lady? to sort of be a model of domestic propriety at some level, and support good causes. Well, she's clearly not a model of domestic propriety and the cause that she supports is...her own business interests."

Melania earned $10 million from her eponymous documentary, even though it cost $75 million to produce and earned only $17 million worldwide during its theatrical run, according to The Daily Beast. She also collected $6 million from her NFTs, and another $500,000 from her autobiography, according to disclosures reviewed by The Daily Beast.

Body language expert decodes Melania Trump's surprise reemergence with hubby

First Lady Melania Trump's reemergence was full of "coordinated" displays of togetherness with President Donald Trump, a body language expert revealed.

On Thursday, Melania was seen in public for the first time in over a month as she spoke to reporters about an IndyCar-funded scholarship for her foster program. She came out of the White House holding Trump's hand and cracked a joke at the lectern, saying, "I heard you missed me," but an expert told the HuffPost that her body language read as staged.

The couple entered the Rose Garden with a "controlled, coordinated display of unity," Abbie Maroño, a behavioral scientist, told the HuffPost in a Friday article.

"Their interaction is restrained rather than overtly affectionate," Maroño told the HuffPost. "But they are presenting themselves very clearly as a pair."

Maroño noted that as they walked out, "Trump also gives her the space to own the event: He accompanies her out, but the attention then shifts to Melania rather than him competing for the central position." Melania, meanwhile, "comes across as controlled, rather than reluctant about being back in front of the press."

Melania reappeared amid scrutiny and bewilderment about Trump's devoted aide, Natalie Harp. Melania hasn't been seen in public since the July 19 FIFA World Cup Final, more than a month ago.

Denise Dudley, a psychologist and communications expert, agreed that Melania looked "controlled, contained, composed," and she didn't show "the behaviors we sometimes associate with nervousness or uncertainty, like fidgeting, self-touching, excessive smiling."

Maroño compared the appearance to the instances in 2017 and 2020, when Melania was seen brushing away Trump's hand or moving her hand away from his.

"I would not say [this] means their relationship has changed or that the handholding is deliberately correcting [anything]," Maroño said. "We cannot know that."

Dudley added, "an absence of positive signals isn't automatically evidence of negative emotion," and "I don't see her looking to her husband for reassurance or hesitation as she assumes the speaking role."

Melania Trump: Good afternoon. I heard you missed me. Here I am. pic.twitter.com/Mj8EaflFnZ
— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) August 20, 2026

Melania Trump to resurface amid swirling rumors about husband's 'adoring' aide

First lady Melania Trump was expected to make a rare public appearance as the White House fends off rumors around President Donald Trump's relationship with a young aide, according to reports on Wednesday.

Melania Trump, who has not been seen in public in about a month, was expected to appear alongside Trump on Thursday at an event in the White House Rose Garden, The Daily Beast reported. Melania's "Fostering the Future" initiative was slated to announce the "groundbreaking alliance" between Fox Corp., IndyCar, Indiana University and Purdue University.

She was also expected to make an appearance at the 250 Grand Prix of Washington this weekend, The Beast reported.

Melania was last seen on July 19 at the FIFA World Cup Final in New Jersey.

"Melania, who already keeps a low profile, has been seen in public just 38 days so far this year, meaning the first lady has shown her face at an average rate of once every six days in 2026," according to The Beast.

The first lady's recent absences have raised questions. She did not attend the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner or the funeral of Trump's friend Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

"She also did not appear to spend much personal time with him, as she was not seen accompanying her husband to any of his more leisurely activities either, including his back-to-back weekends spent golfing at his Bedminster Golf Club in New Jersey," The Beast reported.

Her upcoming appearance also comes at a moment when Natalie Harp, 35, widely regarded as Trump's most "adoring aide," has moved into the spotlight, having accompanied him on nearly every outing throughout August.

Melania's longtime spokesperson, Marc Beckman, told One America News to expect to see more of the first lady.

"This first lady has been a first lady of firsts: two pieces of legislation—one that we hope the Senate passes—an executive order, five reunifications, all kinds of bold movements internationally, Fostering the Future Together with 50 states, the United Nations," Beckman said.

Beckman explained that she was planning to, as he said, "plop down on culture."

'What is she doing?' Cackling CNN pundits say they know why Melania keeps ghosting Trump

There's a brand-new theory as to why First Lady Melania Trump is almost never seen at the White House.

During a Saturday appearance on CNN's Table for Five, journalist and podcast host Joanna Coles discussed the results of The Daily Beast's recent audit of Melania Trump's public appearances.

"We haven't seen her since July the 4th," Coles said. "So the question is, what is the First Lady doing? The United States has a First Lady, and she is almost never at the president's side."

Coles said that she and other reporters at The Daily Beast are "pretty confident" that she no longer lives with Trump, even though the two have been married since 2005.

"She doesn't appear to live at the White House," Coles said. "So she either lives in Florida or in New York, which is kind of odd, but she just doesn't show up."

According to the audit by The Daily Beast, Melania has done a third less than Jill Biden and 78 percent fewer speeches than Michelle Obama, the two recent first ladies. "She is the least visible first lady of the entire century," Coles added.

"So, what is she doing?" Coles repeated.

Coles didn't have answers, but offered a suggestion to Trump if he wanted to see his wife: hire her as the replacement for the outgoing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

"Because she's fabulous to look at," Coles said.

Then NPR journalist Ayesha Rascoe revealed her theory as to why Melania is not to be seen.

"Trump is taking a lot of the stuff that a First Lady would do," she said, spurring a burst of laughter from Coles.

"He's redesigning the White House, he's redecorating," Rascoe said, eyebrow raised. "He wants to do everything. He's taking the First Lady role too."

Melania Trump clobbered by 'bombshell' threat as Epstein investigators close in: expert

Lawyer and journalist Katie Phang warned that Melania Trump tops the subpoena list for lawmakers planning an Epstein probe.

Phang is leading a lawsuit against Attorney General Todd Blanche to hold the Trump administration accountable for its obligation to release certain Epstein records by law. On a Friday podcast episode she described in the title as a "bombshell," Phang spoke with Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) about his pledge to carry out an investigation of Epstein and uncover more about the deceased sex criminal after the midterms.

Garcia and Phang predicted that Democrats would retake the House after the midterms, along with the House Oversight Committee. As the ranking Democrat on the committee, Garcia expects to find himself in a position to start dishing out subpoenas, and Phang noted, "At the top of that list is a woman by the name of Melania Trump."

Garcia explained, "Republicans have set a precedent that we can subpoena and talk to first ladies and former first ladies and family members of presidents" by going after Hunter Biden and the Clintons. He plans to leverage that precedent and go after Melania to discover what she knows about Epstein.

"I mean, does anyone here across the country think that the first lady doesn't have additional information?" Garcia said. Melania Trump and Epstein were photographed together with Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in February 2000.

Phang noted Melania's "bizarre press conference" in April 2026, where she denied ever being his friend or victim while calling on Congress to let survivors testify at public hearings. Garcia said that the speech made it clear she wants the investigation to move forward.

"She made that clear, and so we're very interested," Garcia said. "There's no question that we want to talk to the first lady. Melania clearly has information."

Garcia added, "There's a lot of speculation about who knew who when, who was introduced to who, when and how, and so I think those are valid questions," and evoked Melania's own words to call on her to tell the truth.

"If Melania Trump wants real justice for the survivors, then she would work with us to try to get the truth," Garcia said.

'Trump will flip out': Potential probe flagged that threatens to 'destabilize' White House

A political commentator flagged a potential probe that has the potential to "destabilize" President Donald Trump if it keeps moving forward.

During an episode of his podcast, progressive political analyst David Pakman said that Rep. Yassamin Ansari's (D-AZ) request for a House Oversight investigation into Barron Trump's ties to arrested influencer Andrew Tate poses a real threat to the Trump family.

Tate and his brother were arrested last month by U.S. Marshals and face a possible extradition to the United Kingdom, where they've been accused of dozens of sex crimes. Barron Trump and Andrew Tate reportedly communicated as far back as 2024, according to Pakman, though Barron has not been accused of any crime connected to the Tate brothers.

Ansari sent a letter to Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, in late July demanding an investigation into whether Barron knew of the Tate brothers' crimes. Pakman doesn't look into the possibility of Comer pushing an investigation forward, but he says that if Democrats take control of the House after the 2026 midterms, it presents a more damning scenario for the Trumps.

"Just because you're the president's son doesn't mean you're immune from scrutiny," Pakman said. "Imagine for a second Democrats win in 2026 and Barron gets a subpoena. Trump will flip out."

Pakman noted Trump's outbursts when an "ordinary associate" of his is investigated. "He goes, 'It's treason. The prosecutors are deranged. The judges are corrupt.' Barron is in a different category. Donald and Melania Trump have guarded Barron very intensely."

When a YouTube creator with autism speculated in 2016 that Barron might be autistic, "Melania Trump threatened legal action. The video was removed, and she later said that it caused irreparable damage," Pakman pointed out. "When Barron attracts any public attention, this family flips out."

Trump perceives "any kind of political conflict as personal humiliation," so Pakman predicts that "a subpoena against Barron Trump would destabilize Trump in a way you can't even imagine."

MAGA world rattled by Melania's deafening silence on lawmaker's abuse claims: expert

MAGA loyalists were stunned after President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump were tied to a third abuse scandal, a legal expert said Tuesday.

In an episode of the Legal AF podcast, Popok detailed how Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) has faced calls to resign over allegations that he abused his ex-wife and their daughter — and noted that this wasn't the first time Miller has been accused of abuse.

Popok recalls Stephanie Grisham, former White House communications director during the first Trump administration, who wrote a book and included a chapter about Miller.

"She didn't name him by name, but it was obvious who she was talking about," Popok said. "And later he self-identified, he outed himself and said, 'yeah, I'm the boyfriend in the chapter that she wrote about where she said she was physically abused when they lived together.'"

In the book, Grisham described how Miller allegedly did "terrible physically abusive things to her when Stephanie was leaving the relationship on the day that she was leaving it," Popok explained. "Now, that ended up also confirmed in a Washington Post op-ed piece. This is back in 2023 and 2024. Now, when apparently Stephanie Grisham was friendly with Melania Trump, remember her? Used to be our first lady, barely seen these days. And Melania Trump, according to Grisham in her book, said, you need to go to the police. Where is Melania Trump these days?"

"Besides pointing an angry finger about her connections to the Epstein scandal and saying she doesn't have any and requiring that victims take the oath and testify to Congress before justice is done for Epstein victims, she is strangely silent once again about Max Miller," Popok said.

"If Grisham is telling the truth, and who are you going to believe, Melania Trump or Grisham at this point? And Melania encouraged her to go to the police, then where is she now? It's a deafening silence. It's a roar."

But the reason Grisham gave for not going to the police and reporting Miller, which might have changed the fate of Emily Moreno later marrying Miller, was shocking, Popok explained.

"She, according to Grisham's own autobiography, she told Melania Trump, the reason she wasn't going to the police, get this, it was all political, that she didn't think that the Trump administration needed an abuse scandal while they were campaigning for election," he added.

Trump & Melania Caught Up in Another ABUSE Scandal & Back MAGA Rep Accused of Abusing Wife/Daughter! by Legal AF

Read on Substack

Trump's 'wild jealousy' fueled bizarre smear campaign against legendary actor: biographer

A White House smear against a legendary actor stemmed from a decades-old grudge and wild jealousy, a Trump biographer said.

During an episode of Inside Trump's Head, host Joanna Coles and Trump biographer Michael Wolff tried to explain the White House's smear campaign against actor Richard Gere.

The smear started when White House Communications Director Steven Cheung responded to Gere's criticism of cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), according to reporting by The Daily Beast. In a post on X, Cheung brought up a rumor from the 1990s about Gere involving a gerbil.

Gere "long since has gotten past that," Wolff said. However, Wolff had been "puzzled" about what would motivate Cheung to "resurrect such a ridiculous thing" and noted that he "is probably even too young to know this," he said, concluding it was Trump who told Cheung to bring it up.

"The president is mad at Richard Gere," Wolff said. "So, Steven Cheung was assigned this job, his daily assassination here."

Coles suggested, "It was just some sort of wild jealousy that is still lodged somewhere in a file in Donald Trump's brain."

Wolff agreed, saying, "That's the way things happen in the White House. It's Donald Trump who was incensed about Richard Gere, something he saw, something someone said, something he has some association with, with Richard Gere."

He continued, explaining, "Richard Gere is handsomer than he is" and "is ultimately in that Hollywood contest, much more successful than Donald Trump ever was."

Gere was also married to supermodel Cindy Crawford, Wolff noted, "as opposed to Donald Trump marrying Melania, who he pretended was a supermodel, but we know, in fact, wasn't really a model of any great note."

Melania laughed after Trump promised not to air the family's dirty laundry: ex-insider

A former insider described a memory of Melania Trump bursting into laughter when Trump promised to keep a secret.

During an interview on This is Gavin Newsom, ex-Trump ally and former GOP governor Chris Christie recalled a dinner with Trump and Melania long before they were in the White House.

The dinner took place before Christie stepped down as a U.S. attorney in 2008 and after Ivanka Trump met her future husband, Jared Kushner, in 2007. Christie had prosecuted Kushner's father, whom Christie remembered as "the most disgusting defendant" he prosecuted.

During the dinner, Trump asked Christie if he had any dirt on the Kushners. Newsome and Christie noted that Trump at one point wanted Ivanka to date retired NFL star quarterback Tom Brady instead.

"Which I thought was legitimate, like, as a father, my daughter's marrying into this family, like, what the hell," Christie said. "He said to me, 'But I know that you must have more dirt on him that you got in the investigation than you put out there. Can you share that with me so I can use it?'"

Christie said his response was "I can't tell you whether I do or I don't, but let's assume for the sake of argument that I do." He then explained to Trump that federal rules of criminal procedure don't permit him to make any of that information public in any way.

"It's a crime for me to do it," Christie remembered telling Trump. "He leaned over and put his hand on my forearm, and he said, 'Chris, it'll just be between us.' And Melania burst out laughing."

Christie remembered that Melania "looked at me and she said, 'Chris, if this is something that will get you in trouble, don't give it to him because he can't keep a secret.'"

However, Christie added that he was still invited to Ivanka's wedding with Kushner in 2009.