Nude photos of Melania Trump on the New York Post front page are the latest snafu to plague the potential first lady’s march to the White House, coming on the heels of a convention-speech plagiarism scandal and questions about her university degree.
The New York Post Sunday ran a nude photo of Donald Trump’s wife with the headline, “The Ogle Office.” The tabloid, owned by Rupert Murdoch, said that the pictures were taken in Manhattan back in 1995.
The Trump campaign sought to downplay the photo spread.
“These were photos that were 20 years old,” said senior communications director Jason Miller on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” Sunday. “They are a celebration of the human body as art.”
Miller added that the photos were “nothing to be embarrassed about. She’s a beautiful woman.”
Today’s cover: Melania Trump like you’ve never seen her before https://t.co/wkoDGWTF9g pic.twitter.com/V375rBTUEw
— New York Post (@nypost) July 31, 2016
A request for comment from the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee was not returned as of press time.
The former model’s GOP convention speech was partially lifted from a Democratic convention address given eight years earlier by Michelle Obama. A few eyebrows were raised when Mrs. Trump’s speechwriter said Melania had expressed admiration for Mrs. Obama, who is disliked by many conservatives.
And the photo spread is being published the week after the Huffington Post speculated as to whether Mrs. Trump had earned a degree in design and architecture at the University of Ljubljana in her native Solvenia.
The Huffington Post said that a campaign spokeswoman declined to confirm whether Trump actually earned the degree. Soon, Melania’s professional website, melaniatrump.com, which included references to the university degree, disappeared from the web.
Melania Trump responded on Twitter that the website was created in 2012 and was then removed because it “does not accurately reflect my current business and professional interests.”
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) July 28, 2016
While the Trump campaign initially denied the convention speech was plagiarized, eventually the speechwriter indicated phrases from the first lady’s 2008 speech were inadvertently included in the final draft.
This isn’t the first time nude photos of Melania Trump have made headaches for the Trump campaign. During the primary, a group opposed to Trump posted a disparaging meme about her as part of a nude glamour photo.
Donald Trump responded by attacking primary opponent Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s wife Heidi, claiming that the Cruz campaign was behind the Internet meme.
