Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former aide to and longtime confidante of Melania Trump, on Tuesday explained what she believes is the “transactional” nature of the former first lady’s marriage to former President Donald Trump.
“I think people have to remember who Melania really is,” Winston Wolkoff told CNN’s Jake Tapper during a discussion about the presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s ongoing hush money trial in New York.
“There is no enigma, there is no mysteriousness,” she continued. “Melania really is who she has portrayed herself to be. There is a strength within her that is unlike any other individual I have ever met. She does not care what others feel about here nor does she feel she had to ever explain anything to the American people.”
It’s a “transactional marriage in so many ways that they both garnered so much out of their relationship,” explained Wolkoff, who penned the “Melania And Me” tell-all after falling out with her longtime friend.
“By marrying Donald, Melania really did finally get to be the Vogue cover model that she’s always wanted to be, that supermodel, and by marrying Melania, Donald was legitimized as trying to get away from that whole playboy mentality that everyone wanted to characterize him as,” she said.
Tapper asked Wolkoff if Melania Trump will attend her husband’s trial.
The ex-POTUS is accused of falsifying business documents to cover up a hush money payment that was made to porn actor Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. He allegedly wanted to silence her over their alleged 2006 sexual encounter, which reportedly occurred when he was married to Melania Trump. Trump denies the claims.
“I don’t think we’re going to see Melania Trump accompanying Donald to court,” Wolkoff told Tapper. “Melania is Melania’s own person, in regards, again, to a marriage that you want to consider to be something that most people are trying to still understand, don’t.”
“I do not see her supporting him this way because she is not someone who, I think, that you can feel that humiliation without having to put yourself in front of the cameras,” she added. “Everything Melania does is staged, so everything is articulated in a way for her before she does her interviews. So everything, like I said, is very strategically planned. She is not going to put herself in a position where she’s giving anyone the opportunity to say anything negative about her.”