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'The View': Author of Trump tell-all book defends herself and says 'Melania is unfortunately complicit'

On Wednesday’s episode of The View, Melania Trump’s ex-friend and former adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff had some critical words for the first lady.

Winston Wolkoff helped plan President Trump’s 2017 inauguration but was caught in a scandal when it was reported that her company received $26 million for organizing the event. She resigned in 2018 but has since said she was a scapegoat and unfairly “thrown under the bus.”

She recently wrote a tell-all book about her time in the White House called Melania & Me. On The View, Meghan McCain confronted her about capitalizing on her past friendship with the first lady.

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff and Melania Trump flanked by their respective husbands, David Wolkoff and Donald Trump, at a 2008 event in New York City. (Photo: BILLY FARRELL/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff and Melania Trump flanked by their respective husbands, David Wolkoff and Donald Trump, at a 2008 event in New York City. (Photo: BILLY FARRELL/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

“I don’t like tell-all books like this,” McCain said. “I think secretly recording your friend and selling its contents for profit certainly ups the ante and seems not only unethical but just gross.”

But Winston Wolkoff rebutted McCain and claimed she only made those recordings for her own protection.

“I did not write this book for money, I did not take any advance for this,” she said. “My life literally went into shatters ... I didn’t press record on a friend, I pressed record after I was accused of a crime and I was thrown under the bus.”

In response to the book, FLOTUS chief of staff Stephanie Grisham issued a statement, saying “[Winston Wolkoff’s] intent to secretly tape the first lady and break her NDA in order to publish a dishonest book is a sad attempt to advance her own name. Simply put, it is an exercise in narcissism and self-pity.”

First Lady Melania Trump wearing her infamous "I really don't care, do u?" jacket en route to visit  migrant children taken from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. (Photo: Getty Images)
First Lady Melania Trump wearing her infamous "I really don't care, do u?" jacket en route to visit migrant children taken from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. (Photo: Getty Images)

Winston Wolkoff’s book also disputes the perception of Melania Trump being quietly rebellious to her husband via small gestures and her choice of wardrobe — specifically the jacket she wore in 2018 when visiting immigrant children separated from their parents, which read, “I really don’t care, do u?”

“The fact that she is a mother, to wear something that says ‘I don’t care’ for the media’s attention, when you’re going to visit these children who have just been torn away from their families,” Winston Wolkoff said. She then reiterated, “She is absolutely complicit with [Donald Trump].”

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