All posts tagged "melania trump"

Melania resisted Trump's White House overhaul only to end up 'very unhappy': commentators

First Lady Melania Trump fought against Trump's overhaul of the White House and lost, according to commentators.

During an episode of the Daily Beast Podcast, host Joanna Coles and Hugh Dougherty, the executive editor of The Daily Beast, went over more revelations in the book Regime Change, an account of the Trump White House by journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.

Last year, Trump paved over the Rose Garden. According to Dougherty, the book reveals that the First Lady's team relayed that she was "very unhappy" with the changes, and only secured a few compromises, like getting Trump to keep the rose bushes.

"It turns out he wanted to pave over the whole lot," Dougherty said, relaying details from the book. "He wanted the roses gone as well."

A similar scene unfolded with the demolition of the East Wing, which Trump tore down to make way for a ballroom. Trump's team knew "that this was not going to make the First Lady happy, but it still went ahead," according to Dougherty.

"I think there's a lot to digest about their marriage," Dougherty said, adding that he has questions about "what came back from the First Lady's team? Is that how they communicate? There's lots more to know."

Coles and Dougherty also talked about details that came up in the book about Melania and Trump's separate bedrooms and descriptions of how White House staff "have to clean up because he leaves discarded detritus from his fast food habit on the floor," Dougherty said.

Trump's biographer exposes Trump as 'totally alone figure' with no intimate life: report

President Donald Trump's biographer detailed the truth about the president's sex life, The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday.

During a conversation on the "Inside Trump’s Head" podcast on Tuesday night, author Michael Wolff described how Trump's Playboy life has long ended and he is now more isolated. And although the 80-year-old president is married, the biographer alleged "he hasn’t gotten any action in years—especially from his wife."

"He is in this White House… this totally alone figure without any kind of… basic warmth," Wolff told podcast co-host Joanna Coles. "Even the people who are… the familiar faces are familiar only on a professional basis."

"I mean, in the first administration, he had Hope Hicks, who really tended to him. And now he has this woman, Natalie Harp,” Wolff said. "But he functions essentially… like an old-time monarch, you know. Who has… married someone for political reasons… as was done. And there was really no pretense of a… domestic life, and then he’s tended to by factotums."

Hicks served in Trump's first campaign and was White House Communications Director during his first administration, Wolff said. She later testified against him and for the prosecution in the hush money criminal trial in 2024. In her testimony, she described how Trump wanted to cover up his affairs with adult performer Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Harp has been one of Trump's closest aides in his second administration and there are questions about the nature of their relationship, Wolff explained.

"Natalie Harp, you know, has become—as Hope Hicks was—this kind of curious person in his life. We don’t really understand that relationship," Wolff said. "She appears to be hopelessly in love with him, and we’ve seen a series of… cringeworthy letters that she has written him."

Trump apparently has separate sleeping arrangements from his wife, Melania — both at the White House and at their Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

“But, you know… I think that… he’s generally regarded among his staff as… post-sexual,” Wolff said. “There is, at least, nobody who is… rushing to say, nor whispering, that he has a relationship—a sexual relationship—with anyone.”

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung responded to The Beast with the following statement:

“Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s--- and has been proven to be a fraud. He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain," Cheung said in the statement.

'Damning' omission in NYT's massive Epstein report flagged by journalist

A veteran national security blogger is calling foul on the New York Times' latest sprawling Epstein dive over one curious omission.

The name "Melania" does not appear anywhere in Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's roughly 8,000-word piece detailing the White House's panicked response to the Epstein files, longtime legal commentator Marcy Wheeler pointed out on her Emptywheel blog on Thursday.

Wheeler argued the absence was "especially damning" because Haberman herself co-wrote a July 2019 NYT story noting that Epstein had bragged since Trump's election that he was the one who introduced the future president to his third wife. The 2019 piece, co-bylined by Annie Karni and Haberman, plainly mentioned Epstein's claim.

"Instead, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan give us t---, a bulls-- claim that the White House was panicked about the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files primarily because a woman had claimed Trump abused a girl’s nipples until they hurt," wrote Wheeler.

The Melania question has since become a legal battle.

Earlier this year, an FBI document from a 2019 witness interview stated that "Epstein introduced Melania Trump to Donald Trump," an accusation Melania aggressively pushed back against, insisting in an April news conference that she met Trump "by chance" at a 1998 party. The first lady has threatened multi-billion-dollar defamation suits against journalists and authors who repeat the Epstein connection, including biographer Michael Wolff and Hunter Biden.

Wheeler argued The Times piece pursued other detail-rich angles, such as a passage on the strategy of having acting Attorney General Todd Blanche interview Ghislaine Maxwell, while leaving the explosive personal Trump-Epstein link untouched.

"With Maggie especially, it’s sometimes hard to tell whether she is deliberately crafting her narrative in service to clients, or whether she is just easily snookered by her sources," Wheeler railed.

MAGA judge mistakenly 'ruled against the Trumps' in Melania Epstein case: biographer

Trump biographer Michael Wolff remains unfazed after a MAGA-appointed federal judge tossed his lawsuit against Melania Trump on Friday.

"She may have actually effectively ruled against the Trumps without saying so," Wolff said in a podcast episode on Saturday, referring to the federal judge who dismissed his suit against Melania. "Kicking the case out of federal court by default puts it back into state court, which is what we wanted in the first place."

Wolff sued the first lady last year after her lawyers threatened him with a defamation lawsuit because he connected her to Jeffrey Epstein.

On Friday, New York-based U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, accused Wolff in a scathing opinion of trying to go around the standard legal process by pre-emptively suing Melania instead of defending himself against her lawsuit.

"I mean, we knew from the beginning, when we drew a Trump judge in federal court in the Southern District in New York, that that was problematic," Wolff said. "She was in this incredibly awkward position of having to decide a case directly involving the president's family."

According to Wolff, he filed his lawsuit in a New York state court, but Melania's lawyers moved it to federal court. Vyskocil then determined that Melania is a Florida resident.

"One of the ways you get to be a federal case is if the parties are from two different states," the New York-based Wolff explained. "This is an important point because if the judge found that she doesn't live in Florida, then it would not have been a federal case."

Wolff said he would have preferred to see the case play out in a New York state court because of "what are called anti-SLAPP laws, which is to say that you can't use threats of libel to intimidate people."

From what he can tell, Melania "lives in New York" and "never effectively moved out of Trump Tower."

He added, "This is and has always been, from our side, a free speech case. It's not about money."

Melania introduced Trump to his new 'security blanket': biographer

President Donald Trump's "latest questionable friend" — who even accompanied him to China last week — was introduced to him by his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, according to the president's biographer.

Author Michael Wolff told The Daily Beast that Melania's close aide, Marc Beckman, connected her to "disgraced filmmaker Brett Ratner," who also had ties to late financier and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Ratner has been accused of sexual misconduct by several women and directed Melania's self-titled documentary.

“The guy who has become Melania’s sort of main adviser, chief of staff, marketing guru, COO of Melania Enterprises ... apparently knew Brett Ratner, and that was the connection,” Wolff told his co-host Joanna Coles, The Daily Beast's Chief Creative and Content Officer, during an episode of their podcast "Inside Trump's Head."

Ratner went on to direct the Melania documentary that Beckman, who has worked with her as an advisor for 20 years, produced, Wolff said.

Since then, he's become a member of Trump's inner-circle and last week traveled to China with the president. Coles told Wolff, “I got a note from a producer friend yesterday who’s been at the Cannes Film Festival saying that she ... saw Brett Ratner showing everybody his photographs of his new best friend Donald Trump in China."

Wolff said Trump was treating Ratner as a "security blanket" as other members of his entourage fall out of favor.

Ratner was revealed to be connected to Epstein and in the Department of Justice's Epstein file release in December, one photo showed Ratner sitting next to Epstein and holding an unknown woman. Another image showed Ratner embracing a shirtless Jean-Luc Brunel, a French model scout and owner of a modeling agency with significant financial backing from Epstein. Brunel died by apparent suicide in 2022 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, much like Epstein allegedly had in 2019.

"Can you imagine any other first lady’s office approving Brett Ratner?" Coles said. "I mean, I’m not saying that Steven Spielberg would have done it, but there are so many directors that could have done this."

'Glaring': Speculation abounds as Melania noticeably absent from husband's China trip

President Donald Trump's high-stakes three-day China visit has revealed one person conspicuously missing — his wife, First Lady Melania Trump.

Trump was accompanied to Beijing with his cabinet, his son Eric, and daughter-in-law Lara, and 16 corporate CEOs, The Daily Beast reported. And hours before taking off to leave the United States, the first lady's office dropped a cryptic confirmation in a statement to the South China Morning Post, without any explanation for why she would miss out on the trip.

"First Lady Melania Trump is not travelling this time," Melania's spokesperson said.

When pressed for additional details, her team went silent.

The snub marks the latest chapter in what insiders describe as a widening rift between the first couple.

"The move comes amid speculation about the first lady increasingly breaking with her husband as she seems to be trying to charter her own course," The Beast reported. "Trump and his White House aides were reportedly blindsided last month when she called a surprise press conference to read a statement declaring she had no ties to the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The move appeared only to revive the scandal that Trump himself had been eager to put to rest."

Melania has been noticeably absent at the White House throughout the second Trump administration and often does not travel with the president. And although first ladies don't always attend trips, the questions around her attendance have raised eyebrows.

"Her absence is all the more glaring because it follows a trend that has stood out in Trump’s second term: She’s been appearing alongside him less and less on state visits," according to The Beast.

Vicious jab at Melania Trump cut from Netflix Kevin Hart roast

Netflix aired its television special “The Roast of Kevin Hart” on Sunday where the Pennsylvania comedian was hit with a wave of ridicule from various celebrities, one of whom, according to Variety, took a particularly brutal jab at First Lady Melania Trump with a joke that ultimately “didn’t make the cut.”

While Hart was the primary target for ridicule during the special, other celebrities and well-known figures caught their fair share of mockery as well, including comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who last year opened for a Trump rally in New York City, New York. And, in a joke written by comedian Madison Sinclair targeting Hinchcliffe but ultimately cut from the special, Mrs. Trump caught a fierce stray.

“Tony is like Melania: The only thing relevant about him is that he opened for Trump once,” reads one of the jokes aimed at Hinchcliffe written by Sinclair, shared with Variety.

Comedians have occasionally taken jabs at the first lady, with the most recent example being comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s remarks about Mrs. Trump having “the glow of an expectant widow.” With Trump turning 80 years old next month, many interpreted the joke to be a reference to the president’s age. Mrs. Trump instead interpreted the joke as a call for violence, and erupted at Kimmel over what she said was his “hateful and violent rhetoric,” demanding that ABC News “take a stand” against his "atrocious behavior.”

Melania's 'bizarre' recent moves reveal she's ready for life post-Trump: biographer

A recent series of "bizarre" moves by First Lady Melania Trump might not make sense to most, but a White House biographer explained that she's simply setting herself up for life post-Trump.

"This is the new Melania, and the new Melania is brand 'Melania,'" said veteran journalist Michael Wolff on Saturday while appearing on The Daily Beast podcast. He was commenting on Melania's Friday op-ed in the Washington Post for Mother's Day.

Wolff described it as an "ode to motherhood" but added that "I would say certainly that she didn't write it," and that "it makes sense that she didn't read it."

The podcast's host, journalist Joanna Coles, pointed out that Melania "sympathizes with single mothers" in the op-ed. Wolff also recalled the odd statement she put out three weeks ago, saying she didn't know Jeffrey Epstein, and put that together with her "strategic absences" and "peculiar attitude" to conclude that Melania is "building this independent brand persona from" Trump.

"She is in some kind of secret or not so secret revolt against him," Wolf said. "It's all about how she sees her future business, which is the Melania business. So now she's speaking up for motherhood in such a peculiar way."

However, Wolff noted that this will create a "potential liability" for Trump, and "within the White House, they now look at her as a liability," he said.

"This is not good" for the White House, Wolff said. "It's not necessarily controllable for them."

Crowd bursts into laughter as Melania Trump tries to tout husband's empathy

First lady Melania Trump made the room laugh during a White House event on Wednesday when she touted her husband's "empathy."

The Trumps were speaking at an event to honor military mothers ahead of Mother's Day this weekend when Melania Trump's comment prompted giggles.

"Most know my husband as the strong commander-in-chief, but his empathy transcends the role and shape of a caring leader, who constantly remembers each and every American soldier is someone's child," she said.

The room immediately cackled.

People on social media reacted to the moment.

"Empathy ~ the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. Obviously. Melania has gotten into her husband’s Adderall stash," Canadian liberal commentator Marlene Robertson wrote on X.

"Listening to her botch the English language and describing the human s--- machine as empathetic is just a bit much today," medical coder and former nurse Anastasia Beaverhausen, wrote on X.

"Empathy my a--," Peter Hopey, former Bleacher Report columnist, wrote on X.

"Melania calling Trump empathetic is peak comedy. Even she knows it's a joke—the audience just said it out loud," user Anas, who self-describes as a global strategist, wrote on X.

"Y’all give her a break she doesn’t know English very well," political commentator Shelby wrote on X.

MELANIA: Most know my husband as the strong commander in chief, but his empathy transcends the role--

CROWD: *laughs* pic.twitter.com/S36OT51Q5q
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 6, 2026

Trump tasked military to fix misspelling of Melania's name in his social media posts

President Donald Trump revealed that he had tasked the U.S. military with fixing the misspelling of his wife's name in his social media posts.

At a Wednesday event for military mothers, Trump realized that one attendee had a name similar to his wife's.

"I love the name Melody because for a long time, you know, they have spell correct and word correct on these crazy machines that we use to put out truths, or they used to be called tweets," the president observed. "And every time I wrote Melania, it would be corrected to Melody. So I do think, and I work very fast, very fast, blah, blah, blah, blah, and I talk about it, and I say, and Melania is fantastic, and happy Mother's Day, Melania, our great first lady, Melania, but it would spell correct and word correct to Melody."

"And sometimes I wouldn't proofread it, and I'd say, hmm, and I would get just absolutely decimated. These people would decimate," he continued. "They said he didn't know the name of his wife. He keeps calling her [Melody]. And I said, what the hell is wrong with this machine?"

Trump admitted he was unaware of his phone's autocorrect feature.

"I got that corrected eventually," he explained. "You know who corrected? The military. I said, come here. You got to correct this. You're killing me. I took more abuse."

"She's been called Melody a lot. Anyway, I had to explain it to you this way. I stood up here to explain it to you. I apologize," Trump said, motioning to his wife.