Melania Trump has defended herself over past controversial Christmas comments as she promotes her line of $45 festive ornaments.
The former first lady was secretly recorded in 2018 by her former friend and senior adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, in which she complained about being criticised over her husband’s family separation policy at the southern border, while also being expected to decorate the White House.
Now she has claimed that Ms Wolkoff “spitefully edited and released our conversation to create the perception that Christmas is not significant to me”.
Ms Trump’s comments made headline news, as her husband’s administration was under fire for its border separation policy, which split up migrant families trying to enter the US.
“They say I’m complicit. I’m the same like him, I support him. I don’t say enough I don’t do enough where I am,” she said on the tape.
“I’m working … my a** off on the Christmas stuff, that you know, who gives a f*** about the Christmas stuff and decorations? But I need to do it, right?”
Now that she is selling a Christmas line of six brass ornaments and corresponding NFTs, Ms Trump says she wants to clarify her views on the festive season, as well as attack her former friend.
“I will personally set the record straight because the mainstream media has failed to provide context for these misleading exchanges. Christmas is an important time for me, my family, and the American people, and my devotion to the holiday is personal and profoundly serious,” she told Breitbart.
“Most people will agree that reuniting migrant children with their parents is more important than discussing Christmas decorations during summertime. The fact that Wolkoff deleted this part of our conversation, where I expressed hope to reunite families split apart at the southern border, exposes her malicious intent.
“Wolkoff is untrustworthy. Her contract with the First Lady’s Office was terminated in February 2018, and she was later charged with violating the confidentiality clause of her White House Employment Agreement.”
