First lady Melania Trump’s spokeswoman dismissed claims in Omarosa Manigault Newman’s book, saying the two “rarely” interacted after the former White House aide made it seem as though the two had a close relationship.
Manigault Newman detailed her interactions with Trump numerous times throughout “Unhinged,” which is set to be released Tuesday.
Trump’s communications director, Stephanie Grisham, told the Washington Examiner that the first lady “rarely, if ever, interacted” with Manigault Newman.
“It’s disappointing to her that she is lashing out and retaliating in such a self-serving way, especially after all the opportunities given to her by the President,” Grisham said in an email.
President Trump tore into the fired White House staffer and former “The Apprentice” star over the weekend amid claims that she had secretly recorded conversations with other West Wing staffers. In a series of tweets Monday, Trump referred to Manigault Newman as a “loser” and “lowlife.”
In the book, Manigault Newman says she “always had a great connection” with Melania Trump.
[Related: Omarosa speaks highly of Melania Trump in book that disparages the president]
Recalling an interview Ivana Trump gave in October 2017 in which she called herself the first lady because she was the president’s first wife, the former “Apprentice” star says she immediately went to the East Wing to see how Melania Trump was reacting to the comments.
“She was furious,” the book says.
Manigault Newman then takes credit for the East Wing’s decision to release a fiery statement that called Ivana Trump’s comments “attention seeking and self-serving noise.”
“Melania needs to put that Ivana in her place! Those are some fighting words!” Manigault Newman writes of her conversation with East Wing staff, adding that the president should have stepped in to defend his wife.
“Whenever Donald and Melania weren’t on speaking terms — which was very often — he would call Ivana and ask for her advice, “ the book continues. “What could upset the current wife more than the husband calling up the first wife for advice?”
Manigault Newman is deeply critical of the Trump marriage in the book, questioning why the first lady would remain in her union as allegations of the president being unfaithful piled up — accusations the president has denied.
“In my opinion, Melania is counting every minute until he is out of office and she can divorce him,” she writes, warning that the president could seek revenge on his wife if she left him while he’s in the White House by finding a way to “invalidate” her citizenship.
Melania Trump has offered little response to the allegations of infidelity, except for her spokeswoman pushing back on a statement made by the president’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who said the first lady believed her husband.
“I don’t believe Mrs. Trump has ever discussed her thoughts on anything with Mr. Giuliani,” Grisham said in June.
Manigault Newman also paints the first lady as someone who is rightfully revengeful — from her sartorial choices to gestures toward her husband — against the president for the alleged embarrassment he has caused her.
“At any time, if she so desired, she could humiliate him in public with small, ambiguous gestures, just as he’d openly humiliated her with his affairs and lascivious behavior for years. And there was nothing anyone could do to stop her,” Manigault Newman writes, referring to Melania Trump swatting away the president’s hand as he tried to hold her’s as they arrived in Israel in May 2017.
Manigault Newman offered an explanation for the meaning behind Melania Trump’s controversial “I DON’T REALLY CARE. DO U?” jacket she wore on the plane to visit migrant children separated from their parents, saying it was meant as a form of rebellion against her husband. The former White House staffer claimed the first lady was forced to go to the border to clean up the Trump administration’s “mess” through its enforcement of a “zero-tolerance” immigration policy.
“I believe Melania uses style to punish her husband,” she writes, also listing the “pussy bow” blouse she wore to a presidential debate after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape and the white pantsuit she donned at the president’s State of the Union address.
