First lady Melania Trump is becoming a political “liability” for the White House, Trump biographer Michael Wolff has claimed.
Wolff says Melania renewed questions about her ambitions as first lady when she wrote a Mother’s Day column for The Washington Post that asserted moms are “the foundation” of American democracy and the “first teachers of empathy, aspiration, and discipline.”
Wolff theorized on the Daily Beast’s Inside Trump’s Head podcast that the column may suggest Melania is breaking with her husband. He noted that similar speculation emerged after she made a shock statement distancing herself from Jeffrey Epstein last month.
The first lady’s column was not warmly received by Post readers. Melania wrote that she challenges herself to “think beyond the traditional responsibilities of the East Wing.” However, as the column’s most-liked comment points out, the White House East Wing was demolished in October.
Another comment with more than 800 likes read simply, “The Washington Post was once a great newspaper and my reliable companion every morning. Now it’s… this.”
Wolff believes Melania’s public statements and writings may be a problem for the West Wing.
“I mean, in the times that she has come out, that has not been good for them,” Wolff said of the first lady. “The Epstein thing, drawing attention to that. Her just peculiar attitude about everything… her strategic absences. This is not good for them, and it’s not necessarily controllable for them.”
Neither The Washington Post nor the White House responded to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
White House communications director Steven Cheung has previously given the Daily Beast a recycled statement calling Wolff a “lying sack of s--t” who “has been proven to be a fraud. He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination.”
Motives aside, Wolff’s co-host, Joanna Coles, said she was not impressed by Melania’s column.
“There are so many ghostwriters and speechwriters you could call to write something really moving and rousing,” she said. “ It could be a hymn to her own mother. And yet, they’ve chosen to go the lazy route.”
Coles said the piece was poorly written, prompting Wolff to question why the Jeff Bezos-owned newspaper even published it.
“Let’s question The Washington Post’s responsibility here. I mean, obviously, they said, ‘OK, great… The first lady is going to write something about motherhood,’” he said.
“But when they’re handed this thing, why wouldn’t they say, no, obviously we can’t… publish this all. Are they saying, well, let’s publish this because it kind of hangs itself?” he continued, adding that “there’s some weird lack of responsibility on their part.”
Wolff said the real question is why Melania is doing this now, noting that the answer “could be dangerous for Donald Trump.”
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