Donald Trump Defends Melania Trump, Says She ‘Truly Loves’ What She’s Doing
President Donald Trump is defending his wife, Melania Trump, after an article published Sunday claimed she never wanted to be first lady. A piece written by Sarah Ellison of Vanity Fair wrote that the president’s wife “didn’t want this come hell or high water” and was “unprepared” for the role. On Monday, Mrs. Trump responded to the in-depth report, with her spokeswoman accusing the magazine of making “false assertions” and relying on “unnamed sources.” The statement added that the article was “demeaning” to the first lady.
On Monday, Donald Trump also reacted to the report by stating on Twitter that Melania Trump is very hardworking and loves what she’s doing. In the article, Ellison wrote that Melania knew her husband wanted to run for president and thought he should go for it, but she wasn’t so sure he’d win. Conversely, Trump tweeted that his wife knew he’d win. He emphasized this aspect in his tweet, making a point to convey that he would’ve never run for president had he thought he wouldn’t succeed.
Melania, our great and very hard working First Lady, who truly loves what she is doing, always thought that “if you run, you will win.” She would tell everyone that, “no doubt, he will win.” I also felt I would win (or I would not have run) – and Country is doing great!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2017
Ellison did name a few sources in the Vanity Fair piece. Roger Stone, an early adviser of Donald Trump’s, was the one who said Melania Trump urged her husband to run. He explained that she told him to “run or don’t run” because he talked about doing so every four years. Stone added that Melania wasn’t “ever too crazy about it.” A second source backed up Stone’s claims, but wasn’t named.
President Trump said the first lady “truly loves what she is doing,” an apparent rebuke of a @VanityFair storyhttps://t.co/cc8P5HAnuP via @louisjnelson pic.twitter.com/qvgD1H1FCO
— POLITICO (@politico) November 28, 2017
Another source named in the article was Paolo Zampolli. He’s currently Dominica’s ambassador to the U.N., but is a former modeling agent who introduced Donald and Melania Trump 20 years ago at a fashion party in New York. Zampolli thinks the media spotlight has been “tough” on Melania and that it was hard in the beginning for her, but she’s embracing the first lady role. He told Ellison that “a conspiracy theory” that Melania Trump is that unhappy is hard to believe.
A CNN poll taken a few weeks ago showed that Melania Trump is more popular than she was in September; 44 percent of those polled have a favorable opinion of her, a four-point increase over the poll taken just a few months earlier. She’s definitely doing better in the polls than President Donald Trump.
